The coal ministry is considering a proposal to raise the annual coal production target by 15 per cent, or 80 million tonnes, by 2012, as the demand from companies setting up thermal power plants has exceeded its earlier estimates.
“We had asked Coal India Ltd (CIL) to carry a feasibility study for increasing coal production. CIL has responded that an increase in domestic production up to 600 million tonnes is feasible,” said HC Gupta, secretary, Miistry of Coal. The ministry’s present projection is 520 million tonnes by 2011-12.
India currently has 81 coal-based thermal power plants, about 60 per cent of which are running at critical coal stocks of less than seven days. Coal shortage significantly reduces power output, a major reason why India’s peak power deficit has been hovering around 15 per cent in recent times.
“The ministry is planning to take serious steps to make this increase in production possible, like facilitating faster environmental and forest clearances and land allocation,” he added.
Difficulties in getting forest clearances, forming joint ventures, land acquisition, and unavailability of railway wagons for transport are some of the reasons cited by the coal ministry for unavailability of coal for individual projects.
Earlier this year, Coal Minister Santosh Bagrodia said that apart from targeting 12 per cent growth in domestic coal production, the ministry had set up a committee to explore the possibility of opening coal mines in other countries.
The government had allotted 189 coal blocks with 40,000 million tonnes of reserves till the end of March 2008, but actual production has taken place only in 13 of these, according to data provided by the ministry.
The coal ministry and the companies cite these problems despite the recommendations of the TL Shanker Committee, which set out a road map for the coal sector in India and suggested steps to streamline coal production.
Shortages in domestic production and the poor quality of domestic coal are the two major reasons India’s dependence on imported coal has shot up in recent times.
India currently imports about 42 million tonnes of coal annually and the coal ministry has said that it will take steps not to let the quantity of imported coal reach beyond 50 million tonne by 2012.
However, earlier this year, Power Secretary Anil Razdan had said that about 2 per cent of India’s installed power generation capacity was unutilised due to unavailability of coal at project sites.
