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Rising coal demand from fuel- starved power plants led to the country's major ports logging 12% jump in handling imported dry-fuel in August to 9.41 million tonnes.
"Increased demand for imported dry-fuel has led to top 12 major ports handling 9.41 MT of imported coal during August as compared to 8.41 MT in a year-ago period," an Indian Ports Association (IPA) official told PTI.
The official said imported thermal coal handling at these state-owned ports increased by 14% to 6.81 MT in August as compared to the same month in 2013.
Likewise, coking coal imports through these ports rose 7.43% to 2.65 million tonnes during the month, he said.
Amid widening demand-supply gap and increased requirement of dry-fuel, these 12 major ports had seen 22% jump in imported thermal coal cargo at 71.60 MT last year.
Handling of coking coal, which is used mainly for steel- making, had witnessed an 18.26% increase, ranging from 18 to 33.12 MT.
Altogether, they handled 105 MT coal during the last fiscal, against 87 MT in 2012-13.
India has 12 major ports - Kindle, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V O Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) which handle approximately 61% of the country's total cargo traffic.
With the world's largest miner Coal India, which accounts for about 80% of the domestic requirement unable to meet the demand of the firms, power plants have resorted to imports.
CIL has not been to enhance production on account of several reasons, including delays in environment clearances and lack of rail infrastructure to transport the dry-fuel.
CIL had said it is unable to tap the potential for supplying 300 MT of additional coal due to the absence of critical rail links for lifting the dry-fuel.
Low production coupled with increased demand from power firms is further widening the demand-supply gap in the country, which is likely to widen to 185.5 MT in 2016-17.
CIL had produced 462 MT in the year ended March 31, 2014, against a target of 482 MT.
Coal India's production target for 2014-15 has been set at 507 MT.
Coal is the mainstay of India's energy programme as 70% of power generation is dependent on the dry fuel.
India is the third-largest producer of coal, after China and the US, and has 299 billion tonnes of resources and 123 billion tonnes of proven reserves, which may last for over 100 years.
