The world's largest coal producer, state owned Coal India Ltd, is considering building new power plants in the country to utilise excess coal production and help cut down the inventory of coal that is being logjammed in the transpot system, mainly owing to a shortage of rolling stock. More than half of India’s electricity generation is coal fired and imports to meet a shortfall in local production have fallen short of the requirement as cargoes are held up at ports awaiting transportation to plants. On 31 August there were 24 coal-fired generators in the country with fuel stockpiles to last less than seven days compared with a typical 25 to 30 days on of July 31, the Central Electricity Authority said in a report.
Coal India has stockpiles of about 53 million metric tons of coal, according to P S Bhattacharyya, chairman of CIL Bhattacharyya. That is equivalent to about 12 percent of mine output in the year ended March 2010. Coal India generally needs 205-210 wagons a day. But now on an average it is getting only 170 wagons a day.
Mr Bhattacharyya added "We will float the tender in next few months to import six million tonnes of coal for NTPC. The country's overall coal output during 2009-10 stood at about 532 million tonnes while consumption was over 600 million tonnes. Coal India has already shortlisted three global firms for a possible partnership."
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