With a bigger focus on the power sector, Coal India (CIL) supplied 440.80 million tonne (mt) coal to power plants between April and February this financial year — a 7.1 per cent increase over the same period a year ago. This helped bring down the number of critically coal-starved power stations from nine in December 2018 to four at the end of February this year.
According to a company official, the coal offtake to the power sector increased by 29.3 mt during the eleven months. This, in turn, helped improve the coal stock situation at the generating units. CIL sold 411.5 mt coal to the power sector during the April-February period last year.
