Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reviewed the performance of the infrastructure sectors at a ministerial meeting on Thursday and expressed concern over the 40 million-tonne coal shortage facing the country.
Singh called for speedy implementation of new projects and technological improvements for increasing coal production, senior officials told Business Standard. A decision was taken to set up a taskforce within the coal ministry to work out ways for improving coal supply.
The mid-term appraisal by the Planning Commission has projected a shortfall of 55 million tonnes, which is expected to decrease to 42.5 mt during 2006-07, the last year of the Tenth Plan.
Coal India has undertaken 99 projects during the Tenth Plan period. It has initiated a drive to modernise existing mines and allotted 46 captive coal blocks to various end-users.
The coal ministry plans to supply about 257 mt to the power sector. CIL supplied about 234 mt of coal to National Thermal Power Corporation and other power utilities in 2003-04, while in 2004-05, it supplied 249 mt.
The government has advised the power sector to import about 10 mt coal during the current year to meet the increasing demand.
Minister of State for Coal and Mines Dasari Narayana Rao had earlier claimed that coal supplies to power sector by the public sector coal companies have exceeded the targets set by the Planning Commission.
He said the power sector was supplied 9 mt more than the annual action plan target and 15 mt more than the supply in the previous year. He had also said the power sector was supplied 41 million tonnes of coal more than the targets since the year 2000-01.
Seventy per cent of coal production by public sector companies is being supplied to the power sector. Power generation has been steadily increasing and the plant load factor has gone up from 69 per cent in 2000-01 to 75.20 per cent in 2004-05. About 66 per cent of power generation in the country is coal based.
Some power plants, however, continue to work at critical supply levels according to data compiled by the Central Electricity Authority.
