Coal India, the country's largest coal producer, is set to import about four million tonnes of coal in the current financial year ending March 2009, even as coal ministry claims that the country has sufficient coal to meet its need.
“We will buy about four million tonnes of coal from overseas. This (import) is a totally uncharted territory for us,” said Partha S Bhattacharya, chairman of the company, on the sidelines of the India Coal Summit 2008 in Delhi.
He did not elaborate why Coal India was resorting to import for the first time. Bhattacharya also said that the company is planning to acquire some coal mines in Indonesia, Mozambique and Australia. The company’s wholly-owned subsidiary Coal Videsh Ltd (CVL) is reviewing four mining blocks with reserves of 150 million tonnes in Indonesia.
Apart from CVL, Coal India has forged alliance with four other state-run companies, Steel Authority of India, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, NMDC and NTPC, to acquire coal mines overseas, as India’s demand for coal in future is expected to outstrip projected supply by a wide margin.
Even as Coal India has drawn up plans to import coal, Santosh Bagrodia, minister of state for coal, claimed that country is having surplus coal. “We have a surplus coal stock of about 31 million tonnes and the shortage of coal is a myth,” he said.
He blamed the Indian Railways for the unavailability of enough coal to the consumers. “Wagons are not available”, he added.
However, the power ministry said that the import of coal by CIL is a part of the government’s plan to import 20 million metric tonnes of coal from overseas in the current year.
“Actually, this coal import is a requirement that was fixed earlier this year by the government. This is nothing new. Since the beginning, there were some allotted figures for coal import of about 20 million tonnes,” said Anil Razdan, Power Secretary.
He also added that he has asked state bodies to expedite the import of coal and CIL is a part of it.
“We are improving the plant load factor (PLF) of our power stations and making sure of the availability of fuel to meet the shortages,” he added. Razdan also revealed in a separate statement that about two per cent of India’s installed capacity remains unutilised due to coal shortage.
