Power sector coal demand surpassed in last 4 mnths: Bagrodia
New Delhi, Feb 19 State-run coal firms Coal India and the SCCL surpassed the projected raw material demand of the power sector in the last four months, Minister of State for Coal Santosh Bagrodia informed the Rajya Sabha today.
The statement comes at a time when power utilities led by NTPC continue to complain of short supply of coal to run their units.

As per the data unveiled by the Minister, in January, CIL and SCCL, cumulatively supplied 30.28 million tonnes as against the monthly projected ( Annual Action Plan) demand of 29.31 million tonnes

In December, last year, the coal companies supplied 29.78 million tonnes of the raw material to the power sector firms, surpassing the projected the demand marginally which stood at 28.154 million tonnes

Coal India and the SCCL, had also supplied more than the projected demand in October and November, lat year. The companies supplied 55.69 million tonnes of coal to the power firms. The projected coal demand for the period stood at 54.33 million tonnes

Moreover, the minister said in a written statement, for 2009-10 as against the estimated coal demand of 373 million tonnes for power utilities, the domestic supply pegged by the Planning Commission is 336.69 million tonnes, where the 36.31 million tonnes gap is expected to be met through exports.