The Minister of State for Coal, Shri Santosh Bagrodia has ruled out any shortage of coal for power plants in the country. He alleged that the coal plants are failed to maintain 20 days’ stock as per norm.

He added that Plant Load Factor (PLF), Coal India Ltd (CIL) has achieved 106% of dispatch target between April-July 2008.

The shortage of coal is only due to infrastructure or law and order problems or sabotage in some parts of country. The coal supply is smooth for all other purposes other than power plants.

The union coal minister held a meeting with officials of department and said that all power plants in the country are getting the sufficient amount of coal. He said the coal ministry has not received even a single complaint of coal shortage. However, the state-owned NTPC Ltd claimed of coal shortage to power plants. The NTPC chairman and managing director R.S. Sharma complained to power secretary regarding shortage of power supply in July.

The coal of various grades is available in the country in the rage between Rs 450 per tonne to Rs 2,200 per tonne. The coal ministry had revised the prices of coal in 2007.