New Delhi: Union minister for coal Pralhad Joshi today said the country had a record coal supply on Monday and the Coal India and Coal Ministry are making full efforts to meet the country’s demand. Coal India Limited currently has 22 days’ stock of coal, he added amid concerns over power outages in several states.
“Yesterday 1.95 million tonnes of coal was supplied which is a record till date. We will continue to increase the supply of coal at a fast pace. We are hopeful that after the end of monsoon, the supply of coal will improve rapidly,” Mr Joshi said.
“After October 21, we will try to supply upto 2 million tonnes of coal,” added Mr Joshi, who had a meeting with Union home minister Amit Shah yesterday.
“We want to assure the whole country that coal will be made available as per the requirement,” he said.
Sources have said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office is likely to review the coal supply situation today as more than six states had flagged concerns about load shedding. Besides Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have said their power plants are running low on fuel. Nearly 70 per cent of India’s power is generated from
The government has played down the situation, with power minister RK Singh assuring that the county has enough coal supplies and the panic was “unnecessarily created” by officials from GAIL (Gas Authority of India Limited) sent “wrong messages” to distributors.
The government has said the supplies of coal drop during monsoon due to the flooding in mines. This time, the high international prices have also queered the pitch. Still, Mr Singh said there is sufficient power available. “Whoever wants, give me a requisition and I will supply them,” he had added.
