New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Wednesday rejected Reliance Power Ltd’s plea seeking permission to mine coal from the Moher and Moher-Amlohri blocks beyond the approved limit of 17 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

Reliance Power had argued that the existing cap on coal mining was not enough to run its 3,960 megawatt Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) in Madhya Pradesh, and if the additional 2 MTPA was not allowed it could face the “threat of a shutdown”.

It also said that the additional amount will help it to maintain a buffer stock 1.25 million tonnes of coal for meeting any exigency, which might disrupt coal production, PTI reported.

Reliance Power’s pleas claimed that a shutdown of the power project would result in a loss of Rs130 crore for the company, while the discoms would have to shell out more than Rs200 crore to purchase power from other sellers to provide electricity to its consumers.

The plea was part of a writ petition filed by Reliance Power in 2015, challenging the Centre’s decision to cancel one of the three coal blocs — the Chhatrasal coal block in Madhya Pradesh — allocated to Sasan.

Sasan UMPP, which comprises six units of 669 MW each, is the world’s largest integrated power generation and coal mining project. The power project aims to provide reliable and low-cost power for 25 years to more than 42 crore people across seven states.