It is very unfortunate that India continues to import coal from other countries despite the fact that we are a coal surplus nation today, said Piyush Goyal, union minister of state (IC) for power, coal, new & renewable energy and mines.

Goyal said: “This is because our power plants have been designed not to function on indigenous coal.”

Speaking at an event, Goyal said that Coal India has set a target to replace about 15 million tonnes of imported coal with indigenous coal in the next six months.

On power decentralisation initiatives, the minister said that apart from shifting to renewable energy, we are focusing upon distributed energy production, where consumers themselves can start generating power.

The rooftop solar power programme will be expanded to 40,000 MW in the next six years. It will not only provide energy security but will also give support to thousands of people living in areas inaccessible to grid based power supply, he added.

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