New Delhi, 21st November, 2007 Abhijeet Group has signed an agreement with Australian owned Thiess Leighton India Pvt. Ltd for the execution of a Rs. 4500 crore coal mining contract. At this historic ceremony in Delhi, Chairman of Abhijeet Group Mr. Manoj Jayaswal signed the HOA with Thiess Pty Ltd’s Chief Executive Asian Operations Mr. Bruce Munro.

The Thiess Leighton mining contract portion involves the development and operation of the Greenfield open cast coal mine for a period of 20 years, located in North Karanpura Coal Field of the Jharkhand State. The Mine is forecasted to reach an ultimate capacity of 6.75 million tonnes per annum. Thiess Leighton India will commence work in early 2008 with the development of the mine infrastructure, the coal handling plant and the conveyors.

Abhijeet Group is setting up a total of 5000 MW coal based power plants and 10 million tonnes  of integrated steel facilities across the country which are in its various stages of implementation. The coal extracted from mining will be used as captive raw material sources in their upcoming steel and power facilities in Jharkhand.

The ceremony was also marked by the gracious presence of Premier of New South Wales, the Honorable Morris Iemma MP. He said “I congratulate Thiess Leighton India on winning its first coal mining project in India and wish Abhijeet Group every success with their new mining, steel and power ventures. I am delighted to be here to witness this historic event,”

Premier Iemma stated further, “The Leighton Group, headquartered in Sydney, is Australasia’s leading engineering, construction and mining house. They have extensive and world class coal mining experience and I know they will be able to successfully transfer their capabilities to their operations in India”.