Coal India quashes privatisation rumours; says India has no scarcity of coal

Ramgarh (Jharkhand): India is not facing any scarcity of coal and the output of Coal India Ltd is more than the country’s power demand, the state-owned firm’s interim CMD Gopal Singh said on Sunday.

Singh said Coal India registered a high growth rate of 28 per cent output in 2016-17 over 2015-16, while the average rise in power demand in the country was at 10.3 per cent.

Coal India is fully capable to fulfill the coal demand in India, he said, adding the company has plans to open new mines in the future.

Singh, who is the head of Central Coalfields Ltd, was given the additional charge of CMD of Coal India on 1 September, following the retirement of Sutirtha Bhattacharya.

Singh also made it clear that there would be no privatisation of the state-owned mining major.

Talking about the Magadh coal mine in Jharkhand, which is the biggest open-cast mine in Asia, Singh said that coal output in the mine has been reduced due to dispatch-related problems. The output is likely to increase after completion of the miner’s Tori-Shivpur rail project, he said.

Singh greeted coal minister Piyush Goyal, who was on Sunday elevated to the cabinet rank and also given charge of the railway ministry.