The Secretary and the company officials are learnt to have told the Parliamentary panel that delay in environmental clearances to several of their projects is the main reason behind CIl’s failure to meet its targets
Already plagued with delayed environmental clearances to its more than 200 projects, State-owned Coal India ltd (CIl) has been asked by a Parliamentary panel to find out ways to not only enhance its production but also improve its off take to power plants. According to sources privy to the development, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal and Steel has told CIl management to enhance its flagging production, an area of overall concern as this in turn has led to thermal power plants reaching critical and even super critical stage due to poor supply of dry fuel.
The issue led to some heated arguments within the Parliamentary panel with several MPs seeking to know as to why CIl has failed to improve its production and distribution, despite the fact that it is the largest supplier of the fossil fuel in the country and has all the desired wherewithal to operate smoothly.
Their major cause of concern was the overall woeful power generation scenario of the country, which was stemming mainly from poor supply of coal.Newly appointed Coal Secretary Anil Swarup and all the board directors of CIl were present in the meeting of the Standing Committee, which incidentally is led by BJP MP Hansraj Ahir, who had played a pivotal role in unearthing the coal block allocation scam. Acting Chairman of CIl, A K Dubey (who is also Additional Secretary in the Coal Ministry), however, was absent from the meeting.
The interaction between the Parliamentary panel and the CIl officials was held earlier this week. Several MPs, sources said, took on Swarup and CIl board directors, asking the officials pointed queries regarding delays in its off take for power plants and also its regular slippages in production. The Secretary and the company officials are learnt to have told the Parliamentary panel that delay in environmental clearances to several of their projects is the main reason behind CIl’s failure to meet its annual production targets.
The Parliamentary panel has asked CIl to focus on improving its production as well as off take to power plants on priority basis, and has even asked the company to prepare an action plan on these two significant aspects. Incidentally CIl, for the first time in seven months, managed to beat its monthly production target of 40 million tonnes of coal in October 2014. It had set a target of 39.7 million tonnes for the said period. For the current fiscal, it has set a production target of 561 million tonnes.
CIl, which accounts for 80 per cent of domestic production, missed its output target of 482 million tonnes for FY14, as it produced only 462 million tonnes of coal during the period. Time being consumed in environmental clearances to its projects has been a significant reason behind these delays, CIl has consistently maintained.
However off late, there has been a sense in the ministry to expedite its projects, especially after the Government issued the Ordinance for e-auction of coal blocks which have been cancelled by the Supreme Court. The e-auction exercise, which is likely to begin in three to four months’ time, is likely to put on fast track the production and off take of coal.