 "Power Minister Piyush Goyal shakes hands with Former Power Secretary and Chairman, ICC National Expert Committee on Energy Anil Razdan during an ICC interactive session in Kolkata")
"We have come to a situation where we can't stock any more coal", union minister of coal, power and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal said here during an event.
The priority set by his ministry is to first clear the stock and then ramp up production.
Presently, notified coal prices in the country are already lower than the international ones.
"The matter is under the discussion stage to clear this stock", he said.
Under the coal ministerial directive to reach one billion of coal production by 2019-20, the company has been stepping up its production aiming at double digit growth figures.
During April-December 2015, Coal India raised its production by 9.1 per cent to touch 373.45 mt against the target of 383.08 mt.
At the beginning of April last year, coal stocks stood at nearly 53.5 mt which the miner successfully brought down to nearly 40 mt in December-end.
A senior Coal India official said if the coal is kept or hoarded over a long period of time, there is a reduction of quality due to exposure which results in the stock being devalued.
"However, the present stock isn't suffering in quality due to exposure", he said.
