Twice in the recent past the country has faced coal shortage — in October 2021 and last month. Critics blame poor planning; the government says it was an “extraordinary situation” and action has been taken to ensure that a shortage never occurs again. Excerpts from the interview with Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi at Neyveli, Tamil Nadu, where he had come to review the performance of the public sector company, NLC India Ltd.:
You have been repeatedly saying that there is no coal shortage in the country. Yet Coal India Ltd is taking steps to import coal. If there is no coal shortage, why go in for imports? How should we read the situation?
Even today I am saying there is no shortage of coal. As of now, we are having 11-12 days stock of coal (required by power plants), on average, as a country. We have about 33.60 million tonnes of coal (lying in various places). Pithead power plants have about 25 days of stock, those about 300 km (from the mines) have about 20 days stock, those beyond 500 km may be having 14-15 days stock — like that.
