REFILE-India state firm heads outline strong capex plans

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NEW DELHI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - State-run Coal India Ltd , the world's largest coal miner, plans to spend nearly 400 billion rupees ($7.22 billion) over five years to 2017, its chairman S. Narsing Rao said on Wednesday.

He did not give details of the expenditure, but the company has earlier said its capital expenditure plan includes development of more than 100 coal-mine projects, setting up coal washeries and acquisition of coal blocks overseas.

The heads of nine state-run companies, which are sitting on a cash pile of 1.8 trillion rupees, met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday, who is likely to have pressed the companies to increase investment in proposed infrastructure projects to bolster economic growth that slipped to a near three-year low of 5.5 percent in the June quarter.

Separately, the chairman of state-run power utility NTPC Ltd said the company plans to spend 2 trillion rupees over five years. ($1 = 55.38 rupees) (Reporting by Arup Roychoudhury and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)