Bhatia International had suffered delayed payments for coal supplied to several Indian utilities including Mahagenco but the company has enough of a cash cushion to have weathered the situation, he said. "In January money was tight due to Mahagenco delaying payments be we have sorted it out and the money is starting to come in," Jassal said.

Bhatia last year won tenders to supply 2 million tonnes of coal to Mahagenco and 2 million tonnes to National Thermal Power Corporation.

Indian state utilities typically pay months after coal has been delivered and can take time to make price adjustments for quality in addition, he said. Bhatia is keen to get into power generation on its own account, Jassal said.

The company is building a 10 MW waste heat merchant power plant at Chennai and is in the initial stages of planning coal-fired plants in India, he added. "We intend to go into power, we want our own stand-alone power plants in a big way," he said.

"In India we perennially face a shortage of power." It is not necessary to secure power offtake contracts before building a plant because there is always a need for power, he said. "First build your plant, you don't need to worry about selling the power," he said.

Bhatia and traders Adani Enterprises between them account for around 70 percent of India's coal imports.