Coal India hopeful of meeting demand for power, others sectors

Coal India is hopeful of meeting the fuel demand of the power sector as well as non-regulated sectors in the current fiscal despite challenges during the monsoon, an official said on Wednesday.

The miner continued its growth run in coal production and off-take for the fifth month on the trot, with 12 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively, ending August 2018 in the current fiscal. Coal production was at 216.23 million tonnes during the April-August period of 2018 while coal off-take was at 246.90 million tonnes.

"Power demand is exponentially increasing and unfortunately, in August and September due to heavy rain, the situation deteriorated. I am sure that we will pick up after the monsoon. We will try to meet the demand of power sector as well as the non-regulated sector," Coal India's Chairman Anil Kumar Jha said on the sidelines of the 44th Annual General meeting.

Jha said the miner produced 15 per cent more in the first quarter of the current fiscal compared to the corresponding period last year and supplied 12 per cent more as against the first quarter of last year.

CIL's Director Marketing S.N. Prasad said supply to the power sector is estimated at 525 million tonnes for the current fiscal, as against 454 million tonnes in 2017-18.

The miner supplied 197 million tonnes to power sector during April-August period of the current fiscal, compared to 174.8 million tonnes in the same period last year.

The company's thrust for enhanced coal loading to power sector resulted in 11.8 per cent growth during April-August 2018. CIL's average rake loading per day jumped to 205.4 rakes during the referred period to power sector against 183.8 rakes on a comparable period last year which is 21.6 rakes more per day.

Total rake loading, to all consumers, at 227 rakes per day during April-August 2018 recorded a growth of 5.8 per cent against 214.6 rakes during the same period last fiscal. The absolute increase was 12.4 rakes per day.

The company liquidated 30.67 million tonnes of coal during the first five months of fiscal year 2019, which is more than half of the pit head stock at the beginning of the fiscal.

--IANS

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