Union Minister of Coal Pralhad Joshi on Thursday, 14 October, said that the ongoing coal crisis was a consequence of closure of some mines and flooding in others during the monsoon, news agency PTI reported.
Speaking to reporters, he stated, "Closure of some coal mines and inundation of a few others due to monsoon led to the hindrance in coal supply to power plants."
Joshi, who was on a visit to Ashoka mine of the Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) in Piparwar, Jharkhand asserted that the situation was improving and the coal plants in the country were receiving the required supply of coal.
He added, "We can produce two million tonnes of coal per day."
In a meeting with officials from CCL and Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), the minister deliberated over issues related to the availability of land for mining at the meeting and the present crisis, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, amid growing concerns over the shortage of coal and subsequent power outages, the government on Thursday, cited the Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO) as reporting that the total capacity of units under outage due to low coal stocks has reduced from 11 GW on 12 October to 5 GW on 14 October.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ministry of Power had cited the POSOCO as reporting that the total capacity of units under outage due to low coal stocks has reduced to 6 GW.
Joshi had on Tuesday echoed his most recent statements and said that there were no threats to power supply and urged people not to panic. He said that Coal India Ltd has “22 days' stock of coal” with it.
This comes even as data released by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) on Monday had labelled the status of 116 out of 135 coal power plants in the country as 'critical' or 'super critical', with these 116 plans having less than a week's stock left.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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