The Hindu Business Line : Assocham calls for coal import channelising agency

IN a bid to overcome the power crisis, Assocham has called for the creation of a channelising agency as a short-term measure to facilitate coal imports and thereby enable power plants to achieve 100 per cent capacity utilisation.

The chamber also said that the Government should evolve long-term policy measures to develop technologies for coal bed methane and underground coal gassification for clean energy production from coal, and develop alternative coal transportation technologies, like slurry transportation.

In a note submitted to the Government, Assocham said there is an urgent need to set up a channelising agency that can import a substantial quantity of coal on a medium-term contract, at prices fixed on calorie-content-adjusted, weighted-average basis until a competitive coal market is developed.

The Assocham President, Mr Mahendra K. Sanghi, said that the power sector utilities have been reporting loss of generation on account of insufficient coal supplies since a number of power plants are unable to maintain the specified norms of stocks.

According to the estimates available with the Chamber, the current level of coal production is within the range of 400 million tonnes — which needs to be augmented to about 600 MT to meet the essential domestic supplies required by thermal power stations and other sectors such as steel and cement.

This, according to the Chamber, seems to be a gigantic task for the coal companies.

Further, according to projections, the coal demand will exceed 1,020 MT by 2020, against which the estimated production will be less than 800 MT.

Therefore, it is clear that through harnessing domestic sources even half of the coal demand will not be met and imports will be imperative, the Chamber said.

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