New Delhi: India recorded a 31 per cent increase in domestic coal production in the first quarter of 2022-23 compared to the corresponding period in the previous financial year, Union coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi told the Lok Sabha Wednesday, reiterating that there is no coal shortage in the country.
A crippling power shortage had been reported earlier this year, especially in April. At least 109 out of 165 operational thermal power plants had reported a shortage of coal stock in April-May. With domestic supplies unable to match consumption, the Union government at one point pushed states and power generating companies to import the fossil fuel to meet the power demand.
However, Joshi said Wednesday that by 2024-25, India’s domestic coal production would touch 1 billion (100 crore) tonnes a year. Currently, the figure is almost 820 million tonnes per year compared to 577 million tonnes in 2014 — the year when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power replacing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, he added.
Joshi was responding to a question from BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, who highlighted how an increase in coal demand seems to have outpaced the increase in domestic production between 2020-21 and 2021-22, amid reports of thermal power stations facing shortages across the country.
In his response, the minister said, “In the months of April, May, and June, India recorded 156 million tonnes’ domestic production of coal last year. This year, the production for these months has increased to 204.9 million tonnes. It is an increase of 31 per cent… Also, the government has initiated the process of auction of abandoned coal mines in which extractions were suspended by Coal India Limited (CIL) for some reason or the other. This will further increase domestic production in the next two to three years.”
“There is no shortage. Production has been going up (over the years). In 2014, domestic coal production was 577 million tonnes. It has now increased to nearly 820 million tonnes. We had committed to produce 1 billion tonnes of domestic coal by 2023-24. But then there was (the) COVID-19 (pandemic). I am sure that we will achieve the 1 billion tonnes target in 2024-25,” he added.
In December last year, Joshi said that CIL, a government-owned corporation, had been directed to achieve 1 billion tonnes of coal production by 2023-24.
India has been witnessing frequent instances of critically low coal stocks in its thermal power plants for a while. In May, the Union government cancelled several trains to prioritise the delivery of coal rakes across the country. Later that month, Reuters reported that the country was likely to face a wider coal shortage during the second quarter over expectations of higher power demand — which would translate to worsening risk of power outages.
India has the world’s fourth-largest coal reserve. It is the second-biggest coal producer after China and is home to the world’s biggest coal mining firm, Coal India, which accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s domestic output.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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