New Delhi: In an attempt to boost the electricity supply, power minister Piyush Goyal on Friday asked Coal India to ramp up production from existing mines and increase supplies to utilities by reducing the quantity offered in e-auctions.
Power minister had a four-hour long meeting with top industrials from power and coal sector on power crisis in the country which included Anil Ambani, chairman of Reliance Power, Gautam Adani, chairman of Adani Group, Vineet Mittal, managing director of Welspun Energy, and Naveen Jindal, chairman of Jindal Power among others.
These industrialists are said to have highlighted the issue of fuel shortages, delays in getting land acquisition and environment clearances and transmission problems which have hurt the power sector. They also met finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Mr Goyal may meet bankers and financial institutions to discuss the financing need of power companies and re-structuring of loans.
“We need to enhance the supply of coal. We have requested the ministry of environment and forests to allow additional mining from coal mines which are already operational. Reduction in quantity of coal at the time of e-auction will enable additional supplies to power sector,” said Mr Goyal, who is also the coal minister.
The minister said that Coal India has been asked to expand coal production to the tune of 50-60 per cent for all power companies in the state or private sector. “We need to enhance power availability in the country,” he said.
The minister said that the issue of quality of coal was also discussed in the meeting. He said projects where, construction is complete should get preference in coal allocation. He said projects where construction is complete should get preference in coal allocation. “We discussed the quality of coal supply and asked Coal India to allow third-party inspection before loading of coal to buyers,” added Mr Goyal. Later, both power and coal minister Piyush Go-yal and oil minister Dhar-mendra Pradhan appr-ised Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi on the issue.
