The amount of coal imported during the years 2012-13 to 2014-15 was 145.79 Mte, 166.86 Mte and 212.10 Mte, respectively. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The Minister stated that the focus of the Government is on increasing the domestic production of coal which includes efforts to expedite Environment & Forest clearances expeditiously, pursuing with State Government for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated efforts with Railways for movement of coal.
A roadmap has been prepared by CIL to substantially enhance production of coal by 2019-20. This includes capacity addition from new projects, use of mass production technologies and identification of existing ongoing projects with growth potential.
The Minister further stated that in order to ensure synergy between the power and the coal sectors, the Government has also taken the following measures:
(i)The availability of coal is being regularly monitored closely at the highest level.
(ii)Coal blocks have been allotted to power utilities to improve domestic coal availability.
(iii)Meetings between representatives of the two Ministries are held regularly.
