State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) has fallen short of its targeted coal supplies to consumers in sectors like power, steel and fertilizers during April-February 2009-10.
As against the 281.88 million tonnes (mt) which was to be supplied by CIL to the power sector, the coal major managed to supply 270.18 mt, thus falling short of the target by 4.1 per cent.
Similarly, CIL supplied 7.66 mt and 2.38 mt to steel and fertilizer sectors, respectively, compared to the target of 10.12 mt and 2.67 mt.
For other consumers, the supplies stood at 86.15 mt as against the targeted 92.17 mt. The only sector where CIL exceeded its targeted coal supplies was cement sector, which received 8.65 mt coal, 20.47 per cent higher than the target of 7.18 mt.
Overall, CIL supplied 375.02 mt of coal to all its consumers in the period, thereby falling short of the target of 394.02 mt by 5.06 per cent.
Though CIL's coal production in the April-February period of 2009-10 at 379.8 mt was a 6.73 per cent growth over 355.83 mt achieved in the same period of 2008-09, it failed to meet the coal despatch projection due to inadequate availability of rakes.
More From This Section
By the end of February 2010, the coal stock at the pitheads of all the CIL subsidiaries had reached 51.89 mt.
The coal offtake at the CIL subsidiaries in the April-February period of 2009-10 was 375.64 mt compared to the target of 399.18 mt.
A top CIL official said, “Despite the production growth, we fell short of the target because of the inadequate rakes from the Railways. During the January-March period of any financial year when our production reaches the peak, we need around 200 rakes per day but get only 165 rakes from the Railways and this has hit coal supplies to our consumers.”
It may be noted that CIL supplies coal to 76 out of the 79 thermal power plants in the country and many of these power plants are unable to maintain the normative coal stock mainly because of lesser coal supplies.
Weighed down by supply constraints, some of these power plants have slipped into critical and super critical states with coal stock of less than seven days and four days respectively. According to the data of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), 18 thermal power plants in the country were facing critical coal stock (as on April 12, 2010) out of which nine are reeling under the super critical state.