Coal shortage was due to monsoons: Pralhad Joshi
The coal minister on Thursday paid a visit to the Ashoka mine of the Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) at Piparwar in Chatra district of Jharkhand.
Minister of coal, mines and parliamentary affairs Pralhad Joshi said on Thursday the shortage of coal in the country was due to monsoons and closure of some mines. The coal minister added they have been supplying 2 million tonnes of coal since Wednesday, indicating the situation is headed towards improvement.
“Closure of some coal mines and inundation of a few others due to monsoon led to the hindrance in coal supply to power plants,” news agency PTI quoted Joshi as saying.
"We can produce two million tonnes of coal per day," he added, acknowledging there is a need to produce more coal.
The minister also paid a visit to the Ashoka mine of the Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) at Piparwar in Chatra district of Jharkhand. After the visit, he said the power plants in the country will continue to receive the required amount of coal. Joshi also held discussions with officials of CCL and Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) on the prevailing situation. Apart from holding discussion on the coal crisis, the minister also discussed the issue related to the availability of land for mining at the meeting, PTI reported.
Many states in the past few days have given power cut warnings if the coal crisis doesn't improve. While load shedding is already taking place in Karnaraka's capital city Bengaluru, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that power generation was being affected and requested him to intervene in the matter. Shortly after, the Ministry of Coal said there was ample coal available in the country to meet the demand for power plants.
(With agency inputs)
