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Coal India Ltd's offtake during April and May has increased 6.2 per cent to 76.53 million tonnes compared with the same period last year, the Coal Minister, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal, said.
Production has increased 5.6 per cent to 69.38 million tonnes during these months on a year-on-year basis. The despatch to power sector grew by 6.2 per cent.
“We hope to achieve the annual target (464.10 million tonnes) looking at these two months. Till now, Coal India or its subsidiaries have not been impacted due to forest or environment clearances. But, for the future there are some worries. So, I have asked Coal Secretary to look into those issues. There are some issues related to transportation in Maharashtra, which I will take up with Chief Minister of the State,” Mr Jaiswal told newspersons here on Wednesday.
Currently, Coal India's production and offtake are reviewed bi-monthly. “I have also decided that this review would be conducted every month,” the Minister said.
NEW BLOCKS
Recently, 116 new coal blocks have been allocated to Coal India. “The geological survey of these blocks is going on currently. After a detailed exploration survey, the coal reserve in these blocks would be known,” said Mr S.K. Srivastava, Coal Secretary.
However, these coal blocks are not targeted to contribute towards meeting coal demand during the 12{+t}{+h} Five-Year Plan period. “They may be for future plans. Because coal and power are long-term infrastructure projects,” Mr Srivastava added.
DEMAND-SUPPLY GAP
In 2012-13, Coal India plans to mine 464.10 million tonnes, while Singareni Collieries Company Ltd will explore 54 million tonnes, captive mines are expected to mine 42 million tonnes and 18 million tonnes would come from other sources. The total despatch target is 584 million tonnes, said Mr Srivastava.
“We are in a dialogue to see if Coal India can facilitate import of coal. We will try to bring an interface and see how to work it out. We are working out the modalities,'' said Mr Srivastava.
PRICE-POOLING
Mr Jaiswal said that there have been no discussions at the Ministry level to implement a price pooling mechanism for coal. “Proposals keep coming,” he said.
Recently, industry has floated a proposal to implement price pooling mechanism to determine coal price. The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, had said, “As the import will get expensive, I suggest Coal India should adopt a ‘coal pooling formula', which will propose to calculate pricing of the material by mixing the imported and domestic coal.”
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