Railway and coal minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday that the country’s coal imports would have been 1.5 times higher than current volumes if Coal India (CIL) had not increased its production rate. Commercial coal mining, which was approved by the Cabinet in February, 2018 will also reduce import dependency and bring energy security through assured coal supply, the minister added.
Goyal was addressing the media on the five-year achievements of the ministries under his charge.
Power plants across the country had imported 5.5 MT of coal in December 2018, about 15% higher than what was imported in the same month in 2017. State-owned power generator NTPC plans to double its coal import target in FY20 (from 5 MT in FY19) to meet the incremental demand from upcoming power plants of 4 GW capacity.
