The government today said it would not be able to meet the projected demand for about 730 million tonnes (MT) of coal by the terminal year of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2007-12) unless 100 MT of the fuel is imported.
“We may not be able to meet this demand unless we import 100 MT of coal,” Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia said, while addressing at the India Energy Congress 2008 here.
The demand for coal was pegged by the Working Group of the Planning Commission about 730 MT, while the production around 680 MT for the terminal year of 2007-12 Plan. With the increasing capacities of the power companies, the fuel consumption level is likely to go up.
Power companies may also need to import more of the dry fuel to fill the lacuna between consumption and availability.
State-run NTPC Chairman and Managing Director R S Sharma said, “We will import about 8.2 MT of coal this year and will continue to revise it upwards to meet our growing need.”
Country’s largest coal producer Coal India Ltd (CIL) has also agreed to take their annual production target for the Plan Period to about 600 MT from the targeted 520 MT to fix the demand-supply gap.
In addition to this, CIL has for the first time decided to import about 4 MT of coal this year, as and when demanded by the power firms.