Coal production can not keep pace with demand in India - Mr NC Jha

Wednesday, 23 Nov 2011

Disappointed at the pace at which Coal India Ltd is able to build infrastructure to move coal from mines and to scale up production, Mr NC Jha chairman and MD of CIL said that the state owned miner can only supply half the country’s thermal coal needs.

Q - How do you explain the decision to build your own power plant when you are unable to fulfil the country’s thermal coal needs?

A - There are so many power plants in India, and CIL building another one doesn’t make any sense unless you consider the specific problems of the coalfield where this power plant is proposed to be built. We have decided to set up a 1,600 MW power plant at the Ib-Vasundhara coalfield, which is run by our subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. There are four-five mines in this coalfield, and the potential to scale up production at these mines is huge.

Though we have initiated the process of laying a 54km railway track to connect the Ib-Vasundhara coalfield, moving coal from there will always be difficult. The plan is to ramp up production and burn the coal at the pithead. It is to optimally exploit the production potential of this coalfield that we have decided to set up a power plant in partnership with a power company, and have asked Power Finance Corp. to help us identify a suitable partner for the project.

We have similar problems in at least three other coalfields. Though we haven’t considered setting up power plants at these coalfields, logically speaking, this experiment could be extended to other areas as well where production is hobbled by infrastructure bottlenecks.

sourced: Livemint.com