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New UserPithead stock rose to 69 million tonnesÍž Coal India does not need to produce more: Susheel Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Coal
17 Apr 2017
In an exclusive chat with ET Now, Susheel Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Coal speaks about
what's ailing the coal demand, production targets missed & other future strategies. Edited
excerpts:
ET Now: Coal India finished FY17 a smidge below the targeted production in offtake
levels. What do you think did not work for Coal India?
Susheel Kumar: It's true that the production targets were not met but there is another way
of looking at it. Actually, the production was 2.91% higher as compared to last year. Overall,
country’s coal production was also about 3% higher as compared to last year. While meeting
the target is good objective, but you should appreciate that the country has moved from
adequate coal to surplus coal. Now, we are in a situation of surplus coal and my pithead
stock has risen to about 69 million tonnes. So, actually Coal India did not need to produce
more let us put it that way.
ET Now: What about all the resettlement and rehabilitation issue? There is delay in coal
evacuation largely because of that. Are those issues behind Coal India and what also is
the update on the new wage negotiations?
Susheel Kumar: These are areas of challenge. R&R is continuous process as you expand
the mine, you need to resettle and rehabilitate more people and that is always difficult
because it is movement of people, villages. Similarly, coal evacuation, if rail lines have to be
built that also is a project which involves some R&R. These projects are delayed, Railways
and Ministry of Coal we have been sitting together with the concerned state governments trying to push the projects. I cannot say that all
these problems have been solved but things are moving not at the desired speed that we would have liked to but things are moving ahead
and I am hoping that the most important rail link which is ToriShivpur would be ready by June 18 for the entire stretch.
ET Now: What about the demand scenario right now because we understand that it was only the last couple of months when the
offtake for power companies finally improved. Has that sustained is the real question?
Susheel Kumar: Yes, demand scenario has improved and we have seen an increase of about 5.6% in the power generation. So,
obviously coal correspondingly the demand has increased. Next year, we have been told by Ministry of Power that the power demand
should increase at about 6%. So, we are hoping that our requirement of coal would also increase. Simultaneously, coal quality has
improved. Specific fuel consumption has declined. Specific fuel consumption is how much coal you need for one unit of power. Despite
that, improvement in SFC our coal demand is likely to increase and we will produce more to meet that demand.
ET Now: What can we expect for FY18? What are the production and offtake targets and is that one billion tonne target here to
stay for 2020?
Susheel Kumar: We have got a communication about demand of domestic coal for Ministry of Power which is 584 million tonnes. Now the
normative calculations that we make is that power sector consumes about 75% of overall coal production so that would mean that our total
coal requirement should be around 780 million tonnes. We also have a target of import substitution so adding the two together we would
need about 790 million tonnes for the entire country not only Coal India so that is the target which we are looking at and I am hoping that
the coal blocks which have been auctioned plus already existing private mines Singareni and Coal India combined together they will be
able to produce as much coal as would be needed by the country.
Source: ET