NEW DELHI, July 14: Performance of the coal sector, especially state-owned Coal India Ltd, is likely to be affected in the current fiscal due to slippages in power sector."It is too early to say but if the demand does not pick up then definitely production growth will come down," coal secretary S Narayan told newspersons on Tuesday.
In the first quarter of 1998-99, lifting of coal was down by one million tonne compared to last year and the stock of coal at pitheads has gone up to 25 million tonne, he said.
Narayan attributed this slowdown, mainly to slippages in the power sector as many power projects, which were supposed to come up did not take off.
The power stations presently have a coal stock of 17 million tonnes, the highest ever, representing 25 days' stock.
"We took a review of the power stations which are coming up. There is slippage of something like 7000 MW in the ninth plan," he said.
Against a projection of 18,800 MW of coal based power by 2001-02, the current expectation is that nomore than 11,000 MW will be available during the plan period.
According to coal ministry calculations, a slippage of 7,000 MW would mean that coal demand would reduce by 30 million tonne.
The ministry has set a target of 307 million tonne for the current year compared to last year's figure of 296 million tonne, coal secretary said.
The actual supply of coal would be 332 million tonne, including the current stock of 25 million tonne at pitheads, he added.
The country is facing a peculiar situation that coal worth Rs 4,100 crore was imported last year when stock coal worth Rs 3,000 crore was lying at the pitheads, he said.
Even the cash and carry system implemented in January 1997 has not really worked because of the sluggishness in demand, he added.
To improve the situation either the power ministry has to bring new projects or push the projects in development, Narayan said.
The Planning Commission has projected a shortfall of 41.6 million tonne of coal by the terminal year of Ninth Plan. TheCommission has projected the total production at 370.60 million tonne and the demand at 412.20 million tonne.
The coal ministry believes that the shortfall would be much less because of the slippages in the power sector, which could be higher than 7,000 MW.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
