Coal India Ltd. (CIL) has invited tenders for importing five million tonnes of coal to meet its contractual obligations under the fuel supply agreements with the power sector.
The tenders have been invited for selection of agencies, which would supply imported coal to CIL’s customers. The cost is being estimated at around Rs.3,000 crore. It was learnt that certain conditions in this tender were relaxed as an earlier one failed to draw response from prospective bidders. The bidders would have to be either a government department or a government-owned company or a public sector and the delivery would have to be made at the power plant end. They would have to deposit an earnest money of Rs.50 lakh.
CIL produced 366.6 million tonnes of coal in the first 10 months of 2013-14, fulfilling only 75 per cent of its annual target.Admitting that the Maharatna PSU was on a weak wicket, sources said that even with a production average of 50 million tonnes during the two remaining months, CIL might close the fiscal producing about 370 million tonnes against the targeted 482 million tonnes.
