The Centre is all geared up to meet the demand of coal by states and power companies and railways. The government is ramping up its per day coal production from 1.94 million to 2 million tonnes within a week, government sources said, even as Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday expressed happiness over the increase in the supply of coal to thermal power plants from all sources.
Government sources said that there is no shortage in the daily supply of coal to states and power companies and it is maintaining five days’ stock. In a month’s time, the situation will be back to normal. There are multiple reasons for the current scenario. A government source said, “Since January, the coal ministry has been writing to various states to pick up and stock coal in their respective states, but no one paid heed. Coal India can stock up to a limit. If we stock more coal than the limit, there is a risk of fire.”
Rajasthan, West Bengal, Jharkhand have their own mines, but they did little to extract coal. It is learnt that despite clearances some of the state governments sat on decisions and gave Covid and rains as reasons for not doing enough mining. Prolonged monsoon affected the mining and the shooting prices of imported coal also contributed to the current situation.
There is a 12% fall in imports of foreign coal which power companies blend, to cut losses due to high prices they also shifted to domestic coal. States have huge pending dues of Coal India on them. It is learnt from sources that Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are big defaulters. All states have to dues of Rs 20,000 crores to be paid to Coal India. Government sources said despite large sums of dues, supply continues and it will continue to provide power and coal supplies. Electrification of villages and industrialisation has also shot up the demand. Government source told ANI that Delhi and Punjab shut coal plants like in Ropar and Bhatinda.
Meanwhile, amid the ongoing concerns regarding the coal supply in the country, Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday expressed happiness over the increase in the supply of coal to thermal power plants from all sources. Taking to Twitter, the Minister has said that cumulative coal supplies including that from Coal India Ltd have recorded more than 2 million tonnes on Tuesday. “Happy to share that cumulative coal supplies to thermal power plants from all sources including Coal India Limited recorded more than 2 million tonnes yesterday. We are increasing coal dispatch to power plants further to ensure sufficient coal stocks at power plants,” tweeted Joshi.
The Ministry of Coal on Tuesday launched the auction process of 40 new coal mines in which 21 new mines are under the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act 2015 and 19 are under the Tranche three of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 1957.
In an official statement, the ministry had stated that the step has been taken following the successful auction of 28 coal mines in the first two tranches and there shall be a total of 88 coal mines on offer at present. “Total geological resources of about 55 billion tonnes of coal are on offer from these 88 mines, of which 57 are fully explored mines and 31 are partially explored mines. There are four coking coal mines on offer,” the statement from the Ministry of Coal said.