Minister of railways, coal, finance and corporate affairs Piyush Goyal has denied that there is shortage of coal for the power sector.

He said in the beginning of 2018-19, Coal India Limited (CIL) had a pithead stock of 55.55 million tonne (MT) and stock at power house end was 16.27 MT. In the first quarter of 2018-19, CIL dispatched a record quantity of 122.2 MT coal to the power sector, clocking a growth of 15 percent over the corresponding period of the last year. The growth in dispatch of coal to power sector has helped coal based generation to achieve positive growth of 5.3 percent in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Coal supplies to power sector are monitored regularly by an inter-ministerial sub group. This sub-group has been meeting periodically in order to take various operational decisions for meeting any contingent situations relating to power sector including critical coal stock position for power plants.

The CIL has been advised to work out a definite action plan for higher production and off-take during the current quarter and to ensure that necessary clearances for the existing coal mines are in place which will help in increasing the coal production.