CIL in talk with coastal power firms to substitute imports

State-owned Coal India Limited is in talks with power companies along the western and eastern coasts to discontinue the use of imported coal. "We are meeting the coastal power companies to shift to coal produced by CIL. Some of them have already started that," director (marketing) of CIL S N Prasad told a programme organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce here on Tuesday. He said that these power companies were of the opinion that imported coal was more expensive than domestically produced coal.

"They are willing to shift to local coal as it will reduce the cost of generation," he said.

For this, these firms would have to enter into a long-term agreement with CIL, Prasad said. Regarding growth of coal production during the current fiscal, he said that it would come down to two to 2.25 per cent as compared to nine per cent registered in the fiscal 2015-16. In the last fiscal, CIL production at absolute terms was 536 million tonnes.

Regarding coal supply to power plants, he said that CIL has a stock 100 million tonnes at pithead. "Coal will be available to the power companies on demand. Ppower plants are having a coal stock of 10 to 15 days," Prasad said.PTI