Coal supply prioritised temporarily to power sector to replenish stock: CIL

State-owned CIL on Tuesday said the supply of coal was prioritised temporarily to power producers to replenish their dwindling stock of the dry fuel.

The statement assumes significance in the wake of the country's power plants grappling with fuel shortages.

"In view of the low stock position at the power house end due to a spurt in economic activities during post-second wave of COVID-19, the supply of coal was prioritised temporarily to the power sector to replenish their dwindling coal stock," Coal India Ltd (CIL) said in a statement.

To achieve the same in the quickest possible time, coal companies were advised only to go slow temporarily on conducting further e-auction of coal, barring the special forward e-auction for power.

"This was a highly transitory measure to tide off the current high demand scenario in the power sector and normalcy will be restored soon," the filing said.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday discussed ways to improve coal stocks at thermal power plants with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Power Minister R K Singh.

The coal minister also reviewed the performance of Coal India arm Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), and directed it to ramp up production and load to at least 34 rakes of the dry fuel daily.

Last week, Joshi said the government was making full efforts to meet the coal demand of power producers and stressed that steps are being taken to soon ramp up the dry fuel supply to two million tonnes per day.

The minister also felicitated machine operators at the Nigahi opencast coal project of NCL and said that their role is integral to scale up coal production and despatch from the block.

"Flagged off a coal dumper truck at Nigahi OCP, @NCL_SINGRAULI. This indigenous dumper has been manufactured by BEML and furthers #MakeInIndia initiative," he said.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal output.