UPDATE 1-Coal India aims to buy mine abroad by March

*Coal India to issue its first coal import tender by Nov

*ArcelorMittal, 9 others in race to develop abandoned mines

*52 firms keen to partner coal India for global coal mine buy

(Adds detail)

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI, Oct 5 (Reuters) - State-owned Coal India Ltd aims to conclude a deal to buy an overseas mine by March and plans to float its first-ever coal import tender in November to meet surging demand from power sector, company officials said on Monday.

While India has the world's fourth-largest coal reserves, its coal imports have grown rapidly as Asia's third-largest power producer seeks to add power capacities to end blackouts.

Coal India aims to debut as a coal importer in November by issuing a tender for 4 million tonnes, with shipments to arrive from January, technical director N.C. Jha told reporters at an industry conference. Jha said the firm aimed to increase coal output by nearly 8 percent to 435 million tonnes in 2009/10 (April-March).

He said India was likely to import a total of 60 million tonnes of coal in 2009/10, up from 57 million tonnes last year.

India's biggest coal miner has plans to partner with global players to buy stakes in overseas coal mines.

Chairman Partha Bhattacharyya hopes to conclude an overseas acquisition deal this fiscal ending March. "Something will happen this (fiscal) year," he said without elaborating further.

Coal India has appointed 10 bankers to advise it on overseas buy-outs, with Royal Bank of Canada conducting due diligence for an Australian coal property, he said.

In July, Coal India had sought bids from global players to form strategic partnership for jointly acquiring coal assets in Australia, U.S., South Africa and Indonesia.

Coal India was looking at 45 out of 52 responses, he said, adding the firm's agenda was to bring back coal to India at a price that better than import prices.

Bhattacharyya said 10 firms, including steel major ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS), were keen to develop its 18 abandoned coal mines in eastern India, which have reserves of 1.6 billion tonnes.

"We hope to sign a contract for one or two of these blocks this (fiscal) year so that production can come from 2013/14," he added.

The share of coal-fired plants in India's total installed power generation capacity will rise to 57 percent by March 2012 from the current 53.3 percent, a PricewaterhouseCoopers report said on Monday. ( Editing by John Mair)