Coal India's supply to power sector up 7% in April-December

New Delhi: State-run Coal India's supply to the power sector increased by 6.8 percent to 299.10 million tonnes in the first 9 months of the current fiscal.

The supply of the fossil fuel by Coal India (CIL), which accounts for over 80 percent of the domestic production, in the April-December period last fiscal stood at 280.210 MT, according to official data.

The coal dispatch by the world's largest coal miner last month increased to 37.660 MT against 35.640 million tonnes in the same month of the previous fiscal, the data shows.

The supply by Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) in the April-December period of the ongoing fiscal increased to 35.593 MT, against 28.098 MT in the same period last fiscal.

According to industry analysts, the increase in coal dispatch could be attributed to increase in coal output by CIL and SCCL, improvement in the coal evacuation and opening up of the new mines among others.

CIL had produced 373.45 MT of coal in the April-December period of the this fiscal. SCCL's coal output in the first nine months of the current fiscal stood at 43.24 MT, an increase of 22.74 percent from 35.23 MT a year ago.

The government is eyeing to achieve 1.5 billion tonnes of coal production by 2020. Of this, Coal India is looking at an output target of 1 billion tonnes.

The government had set a production target of 550 million tonnes for the CIL for the current fiscal.

The government is aiming to provide 24x7 power across India by 2019 by creating cost-effective infrastructure which will be sustainable and inclusive of clean energy solutions.