By Press Information Bureau
NEW DELHI:Minister of State (I/C) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Piyush Goyal, while giving a written reply to a question on demand and supply of coal in the country in Lok Sabha , said that there is no difficulty to meet the demand of coal across the country. The coal stock with Thermal Power Plants (TPPs),as on 28.02.2017, was 26.15 MT (equivalent to 17days’ requirement). Further, the vendible stock with Coal India Limited (CIL) as on 28.02.2017 was 54.85 MT, the Minister informed.
Goyal further informed that important steps have been taken by the Government to increase the domestic production. These include efforts to expedite environment clearances &forest clearances, pursuing with State Governments for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated effort with Railways for movement of coal. A roadmap has been prepared by CILto substantially enhance production of coal by 2019-20. This includes capacity addition from new projects, use of mass production technologies and identification of existing on-going projects with growth potential. As a result, all India coal production has increased from 565.77 MT in 2013-14 to 639.24 MT (Prov.) in 2015-16.
The Minister also said that awell-established mechanism is in place in all subsidiaries ofCIL for monitoring the production of coal in coal mines and the quantity of coal supplied therefrom. Further, performance of coal production by the subsidiaries of CIL is being reviewed in the Ministry. To review performance of subsidiaries, a meeting of CMDs’ of subsidiaries is held at CIL every month. The performance is also being reviewed in the meeting of Board of Directors of the subsidiaries.