No coal shortage for power generation: Union Coal Minister

New Delhi Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi has undertaken a review of the availability of dry fuel during the ongoing monsoon season.

He took the meeting on Wednesday with the senior officials of Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and other entities.

According to official sources, it was informed during the meeting that both CIL and SCCL have adequate supplies of coal to meet the demand of coal-based power plants during the rainy season.

CIL has clocked highest-ever dispatch to non-power sector, at 3.68 lakh tonnes per day during the current fiscal, sources said.

Overall offtake of CIL stood at 85.2 million tonnes, a growth of almost 10 per cent over last year, whereas after dispatching 25.1 million tonnes of coal, SCCL has achieved 12.6 per cent growth in the current financial year over last year.

“Happy to note that CIL & SCCL are totally geared up to ensure sufficient coal availability during the ongoing monsoons,” Joshi tweeted.

CIL has shown a growth of 11 per cent over last year to register 75.7 million tonnes production in the second quarter of current fiscal (up to August 14), recording 100.6 per cent achievement of target. Similarly, SCCL has produced 23.6 million tonnes coal, thus achieving 101.5 per cent of target.

At 40 million tonnes, growth from captive and commercial blocks has increased by 8 per cent in 2023-24 over 2022-23, sources informed further.

“Also took stock of ongoing Surface Coal Gasification projects. @mahanadicoal & @easterncoal have 1 JV each for production of Ammonium nitrate & Synthetic Natural Gas respectively, whereas @TeamWCL is working on production of Ammonium nitrate in build-own-operate mode,” Joshi said in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter).