Coal India's dispatch to power sector up 15% in April-May

Kolkata: Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Monday said the fuel dispatch to power sector grew by 15 per cent in the April-May period of the current fiscal.

With the objective to increase the consumption of coal in the power sector, CIL has requested the Power Ministry to prevail upon power plants situated within 20 kms of coal mines to lift their entire requirement by road from 2018-19 onwards and to increase the availability of rakes for movement to power plants located far away from the mines.

"CIL loaded 243 rakes per day during April-May 2018 registering an increase of 23 rakes over the movement during the corresponding period of the last fiscal. 47 rakes per day were also loaded through washery circuit and railways goods-shed siding which further helped in augmenting supplies to power sector," the state-run miner said in a statement.

According to CIL, the miner and railways through "their coordinated efforts" have increased rail loading from miner's own sidings to sustain the spurt in demand from power sector.

Besides enhancing dispatches through rail mode, power stations within the vicinity of 50-60 km of the mines having FSA (fuel supply agreement) are being offered coal through road and rail-cum-road mode to be lifted by their own transport for further augmenting the dispatch, it said.

At the Dadri and Badarpur power plants located in the Delhi Region, CIL is now supplying at least 10 rakes of coal per day as against linked requirement of 7 rakes, to mitigate the immediate spurt in power demand in the region.

CIL is holding a stock of about 44 million tonnes of coal as on May 31 and there is "no dearth of coal", it added.