Industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) wants the government to lay a road map for introduction of commercial mining of coal to address the shortage of the fuel which has affected a host of power projects.
It has also suggested an enabling environment for private participation in the exploration activity to augment the current drilling plan from 3 lakh metres to 15 lakh metres annually and thereby, open up new areas for captive coal mining. The suggestions form part of a note finalised by CII on the existing coal shortages and mechanisms required to address the problem.
According to CII, the acute shortage of coal has emerged as the biggest risk to the thermal power generation projects. The shortage has led to apprehensions that the ambitious power capacity addition targets of 90 to 100 gw in the 12th Plan period (2012-17) may not be met. The industry body has said that a major part of the problem is due to the bottlenecks in the transportation system. It has, therefore, stressed the need to rationalise existing coal linkages to optimise distances of rail movement, free up rake placements and enable liquidation of idle stock at coal pit-heads.
CII has also said that issues related to fuel supply agreements should also be resolved so that shortages are met by the supplier without delay.