KOLKATA, Nov 8: World’s single largest coal firm Coal India Limited’s chairman S Narsing Rao has promised the Union government
that CIL’s annual production would touch 615 million tonne by the end of the 12th five-year Plan period to meet the country’s need for industrial growth.
The Maharatna public sector undertaking had produced 436 million tonne of coal and has target to go up producing 464 mt by end of this fiscal (2012-13).
‘I would like to assure the government of India that we in Coal India will re-dedicate ourselves to and leave no stone unturned in discharging our responsibilities of delivering the committed output that has been eventually stretched up to 615 mt by end of the current five year plan i.E. 2016-17 at a very scintillating 8.4 per cent growth rate,’ India Coal Market Watch (ICMW) quoted Mr Rao as saying.
CIL has made satisfying output in first seven months (April-October) registering 8.5 per cent upward production and around 8.6 per cent increase in total dispatches and 11.6 per cent upswing in transporting coal to vital segment of the power sector.
‘This has been possible despite production being affected in some coalmines in July-September quarter due to excessive rains,’ Mr Rao maintained.
The company chief said CIL had been under constraints at all levels- the grassroots, district, state, and of course at the Union government level given the federal polity of the country.
But CIL managed to grow due to the professionalism and commitment of the members of the CIL family.
CIL is the largest corporate employer with approx 3.8 lakh employees, contributing around 81 per cent of the total coal production in India.
He maintained that the PSU needs a massive image makeover so that the company was not blamed whenever there was power shortage in the country.
‘We need to improve our image as it is not enough only to do our work. We also need to demonstrate to the world and particularly to stakeholder through various engagement and communication that we are not sitting idle and contributing in the best possible way to ensure the country’s growth,’ Mr Rao said.
He said citing experiences that it was often found that whenever there was a problem of power shortage, fingers were raised at Coal India.
‘Partly, possibly, we do deserve certain criticism, but today we are in a position to contribute our best by supplying more coal than what has been expected from us,’ Mr Rao observed.
In support of his claim, the chairman pointed out that despite government-owned power plants in the country importing less than half of the required quantity of coal during the first six months (April-September) of 2012-13, there is not a single power plant in the country that has stopped generation because of domestic coal shortage.
‘The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) had assessed and given a target to all public sector power utilities to import around 46 million tons of coal during the current financial year. This amounts to 23-24 million tons of coal import by these plants during the first half of the year. However, it has been found that these power plants were required to import only around 11 million tons of coal between April and September as they got enough coal from CIL that helped the country save huge amount of foreign exchange and also avoid the additional cost of imported coal which is about 30% higher than the domestic cost,’Mr Rao further said.
(UNI)
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