अच्छे दिन आने लगे : कोयले से बिजली उत्पादन मैं २२% की बढ़ोतरी

Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal at a press conference in New Delhi. (Press Trust of India)

New Delhi: The government today said that coal supply is not low and that dry-fuel based power production has increased by about 22 per cent in the three months since the Narendra Modi-led government came to power.

Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal today said that coal shortage at power stations is due to stocks being consumed faster for higher electricity generation.

“There is no low coal supply…The materialisation of coal is as per the plan in the last few years. The fact that coal production has not increased is the reality that I have inherited…I cannot increase coal production in 100 days… but the fact is that using the available resources we have increased electricity supply by 22 per cent which is only coal based,” Mr Goyal said in New Delhi.

He also said the government will ensure quick action after the Supreme Court’s decision on illegal coal mine allocation to get the process rolling and enhance coal output to 1 billion tonne by 2019.

The Supreme Court had said that all coal blocks during the last 17 years since 1993 have been allocated illegally and arbitrarily, bringing uncertainty to the fate of 218 block allocations and consequential investments to the tune of around Rs. 2 lakh crore.

As on September 4, 28 power plants across the country had coal stocks of less than four days. Mr Goyal said that state-run Coal India will spend Rs. 5,000 crore to purchase 250 rail rakes for faster evacuation of dry fuel from mines.