New Delhi: State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) said Monday it has scaled up the supply of coal to power utilities across India. The company said it is delivering 1.51 million tonne (MT) per day during the past four days of the current month. Coal India also stressed that it is building up adequate evacuation logistics to transport the dry fuel. The development assumes significance in the wake of reports that warned of a power crisis looming large due to the coal shortage in India.
“With calls for more coal gaining tempo, Coal India Ltd (CIL), amid renewed urgency, scaled up supplies to power utilities of the country to 1.51 million tonne (MT) per day during the past four days of October ahead of the festival,” the company said.
The average supplies to the coal-fired power plants during October so far has been 1.43 MT per day. However, now that has gone up considerably.
CIL added that it is marshalling all its efforts to bridge the demand-supply gap to the extent possible. With 40 million tonne stock at its pitheads and increasing, the availability of coal would not be a problem.
The total offtake has gone up to 1.73 MT per day during October (till Sunday), posting a 10 per cent jump over the same period last year.
CIL Director (Marketing) S N Tiwary said, “The aim is to ramp up supplies to the power sector even higher which we hope to achieve after Puja. Once the despatch rate is maintained, the stock build-up will help tide over the tight situation.”
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Despite heavy rainfall, CIL produced about 126 MT of coal during the second quarter of the current financial year. It thereby set a record high for the second quarter, posting a 9.6 per cent year-on-year growth. During the first 10 days of October, Coal India’s output has logged 6.5 per cent growth over last October.
CIL’s supplies to power generation companies (gencos) have been at an all-time high till now this fiscal but it is the never-experienced-before hunger for the dry fuel, spurred by an unmatched increase in power generation that upset the demand-supply scales.
Once October and major festivals are over, conditions will improve and the power demand is expected to be down by a notch, easing the pressure, it said.
During the first half of the current fiscal, loading to the power sector at 225.3 rakes per day was up 28 per cent compared with 176.3 rakes of last year same period. “The company is building up adequate evacuation logistics to transport coal,” Coal India said.