Coal India Asked for Action Plan to Liquidate 39 MT of Stock: Report

New Delhi: Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal has asked Coal India Ltd (CIL) to prepare an action plan by next month to liquidate 39 million tonnes of stock, as nearly half the thermal power plants in the country are reeling under fuel shortages with less than seven days of stocks, according to a source privy to the development. 

"The minister reviewed the status of liquidation of coal stock. He observed that about 39 million tonne is lying at stock... He directed to prepare action plan to liquidate the available stock by September, 2014," the source said.

The source further said that Mr Goyal asked that the stock in each subsidiary of state-owned CIL be limited to the most economic order. "It could be roughly be equivalent of 15 days production so far."

For faster evacuation of coal from the pitheads, CIL had earlier introduced a one-time offer which allowed power utilities to lift the fuel directly from mines.

The CIL scheme not only helped in making available more coal to power utilities but also resulted in liquidating stocks at mine heads.

The minister had on Thursday informed the Lok Sabha that as on July 30, 2014, 46 thermal power plants had critical coal stock of less than seven days, of which 23 TPPs had super critical coal stock of less than four days' requirement.

Some of the power plants which are affected due to coal shortages are Indira Gandhi STPP (super thermal power plant) in Haryana, Rajpura TPP and Ropar power plant in Punjab, and Suratgarh TPS (thermal power station) in Rajasthan among others, the minister had said.