The coal crisis being faced by powerhouses this year is finally set to be over courtesy the record coal production and dispatch from different mines of Coal India Limited subsidiaries, including the Jharkhand based mines of Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) since the last ten days.

The maximum despatch for powerhouses from Jharkhand is being carried out by Central Coalfields Limited, Ranchi with around 20 underground and 45 opencast mines in East Bokaro, West Bokaro, North Karnpura, Ramgarh, Giridih, Chatra and Hutar out of which Ashoka Projects, Piparwar Project, Magadh and Amrapali projects are among the biggest projects.

Talking to The Telegraph Online today, Chairman and Managing Director of CCL, PM Prasad said, “Coal production and despatch to powerhouses has increased significantly during the last 10 days and we are sending almost in range of around 1.94 million tonnes, 2.07 million tonnes, 2.08 million tonnes against the previous despatch of around 1.7 million tonnes,”

He also added that despatch to the power sector is also 1.94 million tonnes against the overall production of 2.3 million tonnes.

“The powerhouses stock has increased to around 14 days and we have already passed the crisis time and now it’s time to make stock for next year for which sustained production and despatch is required,” said Prasad who is also the in-charge CMD of BCCL, the Dhanbad based subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) and added that barring one or two days the production through BCCL is almost as per the target of around 1 million tonnes since the last ten days.

When asked about the strategy for sustained production to avoid the situation like coal crisis for powerhouses which developed almost a month ago this year, he said, “We will try to avoid production loss caused due to small strikes and maintain sustained production”

Notably, the coal stock of almost all powerhouses of the country has dwindled after Durga Puja due to various reasons including heavy rains during the monsoon this year. The cyclonic rains also severely affected the coal production as well as despatch from the different subsidiaries to Coal India to powerhouses. An increase in the price of imported coal has also led to the crisis as many non-power industries which were depending on imported coal for a couple of years have shifted to domestic coal purchase.