New Delhi | March 09, 2017: India had total coal stocks of a whopping 80 million tonne (MT) at its power plants and coal mines put together at the end of February, thanks to the ongoing slump in the demand for power from distribution utilities and the low capacity utilization of thermal power stations.

India is currently facing no difficulty in meeting its coal demand, said Piyush Goyal, minister for Power, Coal, Renewable Energy and Mines in a written reply in Parliament today. “The coal stock with thermal power plants as on 28 February was 26.15 MT (equivalent to 17 days’ requirement). Further, the vendible stock with Coal India Ltd (CIL) was 54.85 MT,” a coal ministry’s statement said quoting Goyal.

The minister also added the government has taken steps to increase the domestic production including efforts to expedite environment and forest clearances, pursuing with states for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated effort with Railways for movement of coal.

“CIL has prepared a roadmap to substantially enhance production of coal by 2019-20. This includes capacity addition from new projects, use of mass production technologies and identification of existing on-going projects with growth potential. As a result, all India coal production has increased from 565.77 MT in 2013-14 to 639.24 MT in 2015-16,” Goyal said.

According to the coal minister, CIL subsidiaries have a “well-established mechanism” in place for monitoring production in coal mines and the quantity of coal supplied from them. Also, CIL subsidiaries’ performance on coal production is being reviewed in the ministry for which the Chairman and Managing Directors (CMDs) of the companies meet every month. The performance review is also carried out in the board meetings of the subsidiaries.

(Source: http://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/)