India to import 28.7 mn coal

New Delhi, Dec 7 : The Ministry of Power has advised the power utilities to import 28.70 million tones which is equivalent to about 41 million tones of indigenous coal, during 2009-10 to bridge the gap between demand and indigenous availability.

Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has estimated that as against the total coal requirement of 404 million tones required by power utilities during 2009-10, the indigenous availability would be about 363 million tones.

Import of coal is under Open General Licence (OGL) and consumers are free to import coal, said Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Coal, Sriprakash Jaiswal, in Rajya Sabha.

During the year 2007-08 and 2008-09, various consumers including consumers from power sector have imported coal from Australia, Indonesia etc. to the tune of 49.79 million tones and 59.00 million tones respectively.