Comments
Faced with unrelenting criticism for dwindling fuel stock at thermal power plants, coal companies today blamed lower imports (than targeted) by the power sector for adding to the crisis. Sources in both Coal India and Singareni Collieries stressed that despatches to power plants are now well on target and cannot be stretched further.
According to India Coal Market Watch of mjunction, the power sector imported 21.9 million tonnes (mt) of coal during April-September 2011, 24 per cent lower than the targeted 27.5 mt. Senior officials in SCCL and CIL stressed that the power sector was repeatedly warned to step up imports. “We cannot be held responsible for their (power sector) failure,” a CIL official said.
The CIL Chairman, Mr N.C. Jha, said that while the production had taken a hit in August-September due to flooding of mines, the company had made every effort to feed power plants, even by diverting coal from e-auction, beginning October 11. “This is the best we could do. While we will strive to maintain the supply, the power sector should look to imports to meet additional demand,” Mr Jha told Business Line .
For the last two weeks, Coal India has despatched 140-145 rakes a day — averaging approximately 9 lakh tonnes — to power plants, which is in line with the annual action plan. As against a net accretion to pithead stock in October 2010, this year there has been a net dilution. “We still have 45 million tonnes of stock but that cannot be diluted overnight due to logistics constraints,” Mr Jha said.
SCCL, which was plagued by a 34-day strike beginning September, has also been on target, despatching 1.5 lakh tonnes of coal a day to the power sector since October 20. The coal sector was particularly critical of prolonged neglect on the part of the policy-makers in ensuring an environment conducive to stepping up coal production. “There is no continuation on land availability. Environmental evaluations were hugely delayed. Even law and order is a major issue. All these are reflecting in widening demand-supply gap,” an official said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.