India's coal production in April touches 661 lakh tonnes amid power crisis

As the country grapples with power shortages amid rising temperatures, the country's total coal production touched 661.54 lakh tonnes in the month of April.

This includes production by Coal India Ltd (CIL) and its subsidiaries at 534.7 lakh tonnes, Singareni Colleries Company Ltd (SCCL) at 53.23 lakh tonnes and captive mines at 73.61 lakh tonnes in April.

Indian Railways is also repairing its old wagons to augment coal transportation to power plants.

The railways said it has repaired 2,179 damaged wagons to carry more coal from mines to power plants at a cost of Rs 150 crore, railway officials said.

The railways also said it has increased its average daily loading of coal-carrying cargo trains to over 400 every day, which is the highest in the past five years. A rake has up to 84 wagons.

The Coal Ministry said that the total offtake of the coal sector was 708.68 lakh tonnes during the month, and the power sector offtake touched the figure of 617.2 lakh tonnes in April. At the same time, offtake to the power sector from Coal India alone stood at 497.39 lakh tonnes.

Coal India has achieved the highest production of 534.7 lakh tonnes during April this year indicating 6.02 per cent growth. The previous highest ever production was recorded in April 2019 having attained a production of 450.29 lakh tonnes.

Similarly, coal offtake touched the figure of 570.55 lakh tonnes in April. The previous highest off-take of coal was recorded in April 2021 with 540.12 lakh tonnes.

The total coal production during the financial year 2021-22 was 7770.23 lakh tonnes (provisional) compared to 7160 lakh tonnes during 2020-21, recording a growth of 8.55 per cent. Coal India Ltd (CIL) production had gone up by 4.43 per cent from 5960.24 lakh tonnes in 2020-21 to 6220.64 lakh tonnes during fiscal 2021-22.

Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) with an increase of 28.55 per cent growth produced 650.02 lakh tonnes during 2021-22 compared to 500.58 lakh tonnes the previous year. Coal production of captive mines has gone up to 890.57 lakh tonnes and during 2020-21 the same was only 690.18 lakh tonnes.

Total coal dispatch during 2021-22 touched the figure of 8180.04 lakh tonnes against the figure of 6900.71 lakh tonnes the previous year, an increase of 18.43 per cent. During the period, CIL dispatched 6610.85 lakh tonnes of coal against the 2020-21 figure of 5730.80 lakh tonnes.

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