With signs of a slowdown in Coal India Ltd’s output and in face of sluggish power-sector demand, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said that a one billion-ton target was an aspiration and production will be as per demand.
“I am not obsessed with targets,” he said while addressing a seminar on India’s Coal sector - Vision 2020.” It was an aspiration, he said, adding that it would “depend on demand, but it is important (for CIL) to stay prepared.”
After clocking high rates of growth in 2014-15 and 2015-16, CIL may fall well short of its current fiscal’s target by a wide-margin. “There is no shortage of coal at the power plants currently and the emphasis now is on quality” .
He said that exploratory talks were now on for exporting “a small amount of coal to Bangladesh.” Central and state public sector units may not import coal by March 2017, he said.
Private minersOn commercial mining, he said that after allocating coal mines to the states for this purpose, the government was now working towards bringing in the private sector in this area. “However, now, there was less demand for mines and there were hardly any takers in the fourth round of mines auctions.”
