| Stating this in the Lok Sabha today, Minister of State for Coal and Mines Dasari Narayan Rao said power utilities imported 10 million tonnes of coal during 2004-05. |
| The trend in coal imports during the last five years indicated that the quantum of import remained in the range of 22-25 million tonnes. Import of coal during the current year is expected to be about 35 million tonnes. |
| "Coal companies have been producing more coal than the target set for them, and by and large have been meeting the demand of the power sector," Rao said. |
| On account of higher generation because of an improved plant load factor, there was a marginal shortfall in availability, for which some quantity of coal was being imported, he said. |
| The minister also said the global coal demand had increased because of a "boom" in the steel sector. Listing the measures taken to improve production, he said 99 projects of Coal India Ltd and 23 of Singareni Collieries Company Limited were being taken up during the 10th Plan period. |
| He said equipment utilisation was being improved and mechanisation introduced. The process of mining coal from captive blocks allotted to power utilities was also being speeded up. Besides, a close monitoring of new projects was on. |
| In reply to another question, the minister said coking coal was being imported by steel and allied industries on account of limited reserves of the product in the country. Some quantity of non-coking coal was also being imported. |
| He said Indian coal had high ash content and low calorific value because of mixing of the extraneous material in the geological formation itself. Imported coal, on the other hand, had low ash content and higher calorific properties. |
| Coal situation |
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