India's power utilities import only 18 MT of coal

Against a coal import target of 35 million tonnes for the current fiscal, the power utilities have imported 18.144 MT as of January 2010.

That leaves an uphill task of importing the balance 16.856 MT by March 31, 2011.


Out of even this low amount, only around 16.916 MT of imported coal has thus far actually reached appropriate destinations, while around 1.230 MT is still lying at various ports for delivery to thermal power stations.

Out of the 27 power firms that are due to import coal in the current fiscal, to mitigate the debilitating shortage of domestic coal for power generation, as many as 12 companies are still to start receiving supplies.

These include, both, public and private sector power firms, namely Punjab State Electricity Board, Uttar Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited, NTPC SAIL Power Limited, CSEB Limited and Reliance Power Limited.