Union minister of state for coal, Sriprakash Jaiswal has asked the heads of Coal India (CIL) subsidiaries to boost up the raw coal movement from pit heads to railway sidings in order to liquidate huge accumulated huge coal stocks at their respective pit heads.
At present, CIL subsidiaries together have a whopping 64 million tonne of coal stock at their pitheads. The prominent among these subsidiaries are Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), Central Coal Fields Limited (CCL), South Eastern Coalfield limited (SECL) and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).
Emphasizing on maximizing the liquidation of coal stocks to meet growing demands of the consumers in the terminal year of the current plan, the minister, in his letter to the chiefs of these CIL companies, regretted that pithead coal stocks had not come down despite repeated instructions to the coal companies.
He warned of stringent actions against company officials if any deficiencies are found by the inspecting senior ministry officials who will make surprise visits at pithead locations and railway sidings on the movement of coal from pitheads to sidings. He asked the CMDs of CIL subsidiaries to take personal interest in monitoring the coal traffic from stockyards to railway sidings.
Stating that the current financial year is being observed as the year of coal offtake, Jaiswal said, the target of offtake by CIL for the current year is 477 million tonne out which power sector will take 347 million tonne .The production target is fixed at 452 million tonne for 2011-12.
Stressing that adequate coal should be made available at the railway sidings to make these fully functional, the minister advised that loading per rake should not exceed 3 hours.
He noted that the coal offtake in May was disappointing and asked the concerned officials to augment it from the current month to meet the target of average 194 rakes per day during this year.
Out of the total CIL stock, MCL has 19.5 million tonne stock with maximum amount of coal lying in Basundhara and Kulda areas in Sundergarh district.
It may be noted that earlier the minister had rejected a suggestion by the Union ministry of power to suspend the E-auction of coal for some time to facilitate more coal supply to the starving power sector.
