Focus on meeting demand, Goyal to Coal India

Taking stock of coal supply situation in the country, Union Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday asked Coal India to focus on meeting coal demand, particularly that of power sector.

During a review meeting held here with officials, he urged "better coordination between Coal India and Railways to ramp up supplies", sources said.

Coal India was also asked to work out on planning for next fiscal's production and supply in an objective to better coordination with Railways, the sources added.

In fact, Coal India had recenly said an action plan was drawn to prioritise coal supplies to power stations lest they turn critical due to non-availability of coal.

The miner despatched 122.84 million tonnes of coal to the power sector during the first quarter (April-June 2018) as compared to despatch of 106.46 million tonnes same period last year.

Outcome of the coordinated efforts of CIL and Railways gets reflected in a CEA report which indicates reduction in the number of critical power stations from 30 as on April 1, 2018 to 13 on July 2, 2018, the miner said recently.

Coal India had also urged power stations "not to restrict intake of coal during monsoon period when power generation demand drops", but to use this period as an opportunity to build stocks to cope up with subsequent increase in power generation demand.

--IANS

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