Question : Demand of Coal

(a) the demand of coal in the country during the last five years and the demands met by domestic production and import of coal during the period;

(b) whether coal blocks have been allotted for the private investors to optimize the domestic coal production and if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken by the Government to improve the domestic coal production; and

(c) whether the Government has chalked out any plan for the production and distribution of coal keeping in view its scarcity in the country and if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR COAL, POWER, NEW & RENEWABLE ENERGY AND MINES

(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a): As per Annual Plan 2016-17 of Ministry of Coal, the all India demand of coal, domestic coal production, domestic coal supply and import of coal during last five years is given below:-
Year 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17
Total demand (Mte)$ 772.84 769.69 787.03 822.36 * 884.87
Total domestic Production (Mte) 556.40 565.77 609.18 639.23 659.27@
Total domestic Supply (Mte) 567.60 572.48 604.35 632.77 647.73@
Total Import (Mte) 145.79 166.86 217.78 203.95 190.95@
$ Estimated in the beginning of the year *Revised estimates as per NitiAayog. @ Provisional

(b): Under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act. 2015, 30 coal mines have been allocated till date by way of auction to the private sector companies for specified end uses. The focus of the Government is to increase coal production to the extent possible by facilitating Environment & Forest clearances expeditiously, pursuing with State Government for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated efforts with Railways for movement of coal.
(c): On account of enhanced production by CIL, the country has moved from a regime of coal scarcity to a coal surplus situation. The vendible stock of CIL has increased from 53.62 Mt. as on 01.04.2015 to 61.92 Mt. as on 01.04.2017. The off-take / dispatch of coal of CIL has also increased from 488.86 Mt in 2014-15 to 542.82 Mt. in 2016-17. The vendible stock of CIL even on 01.07.2017 was 49.90 Mt. Production is likely to further increase due to planned enhancement in productivity and deployment of Heavy Earth Moving Machineries.





Further, an exercise has been carried out by CIL to prepare a roadmap for achieving a coal production level of 1 Billion Tonnes by the year 2019-20. CIL has identified mines with a production capacity of 908 million tonnes so far. Increased domestic availability of coal has translated into reduction in imports, which has come down from a level of 217.78 Mt. in 2014-15 to 190.95 Mt. (P) in 2016-17. As the country does not produce sufficient quantity of coking coal, it continues to be imported. Further, coal is imported by import based thermal power plants set up in the country.

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