The government is planning to bridge the gap between coal requirement and its availability through import. Interestingly, the announcement comes on a day the country?s largest coal producer, Coal India Ltd (CIL), deferred its first-ever tender to import 10 million tonne of coal, which was to be issued in April, owing to shortage of railway wagons. The company said it needed clarity on how coal will be transported from the Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram ports on the east coast, where a shortage of railway wagons has led to pile up of imported coal, said a CIL official who declined to be identified.
Coal India said it may not be able to call for the tender before June as it waits for power producers to confirm their needs.
Meanwhile, minister of state for power Bharatsinh Solanki, said in Parliament during the Question Hour on Monday, ?There is shortage of coal in the country due to its limited availability. As per indications available so far, the gap between requirement and indigenous availability of coal is expected to be bridged through imports.?
However, coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal maintained coal production for 2009-10 was more than what was produced in 2008-09. However, ?As quality of coal is not good in our country, its import is allowed,? he said in reply to a supplementary, adding, ?Increase in power demand has led to enhanced coal production.?
Jaiswal had said in November that the government planned to increase coal imports to 81 mt in the year ending March 2012.
In 2008-09, coal production in India was 44.48 mt while in 2009-10 it was 49.87 mt. Its thermal coal imports surged last year to about 60 mt from about 30 mt in 2008, according to Macquarie Group.
Solanki also said 35 coal-based generating units with an aggregate capacity of 2,102.5 megawatt have been identified for phased retirement up to March 2012. These units are situated in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal. State-run generators in India, Asia?s third-biggest energy consumer, are expected to import more coal this year as the nation seeks to cut electricity shortages.