Coal allocation by CIL to power sector under e-auction drops 20% in Apr-Nov

State-owned Coal India allocated 21.91 million tonnes (MT) of the dry fuel under special forward e-auction to the power sector in April-November 2018, registering a decline of 20.1 per cent over the year-ago period.

Coal India (CIL) had allocated 27.43 million tonnes (MT) of coal in the April-November period of 2017-18, according to the latest monthly summary for the Cabinet by the coal ministry.

Coal allocation dropped sharply by 51.7 per cent on yearly basis to 1.53 MT in November.

CIL had earlier said it would put on offer a little over 45 million tonnes of coal under the special forward auction in the current fiscal.

With coal demand from the power sector exceeding supply in 2018, the government had recently said it was hopeful of higher output in the new year from already allocated mines and it plans to further allot 10 mines to state-owned behemoth CIL in 2019.

Of the 85 mines already allotted, 23 have started production and the coal ministry expects 20 more mines to begin production in the current financial year ending March 2019 or early in the next fiscal.