Centre is likely to import about 210 million tonnes (MT) of coal in the 2015-16 fiscal, in order to bridge the demand supply gap which is generated due to the limited availability of requisite quantity and quality of the fossil fuel and limited growth in indigenous coal availability and infrastructural and operational bottlenecks in coal transportation in major coal bearing states.
According to the latest government data, in the annual plan for 2015-16 the demand for coal has been assessed to be 910 MT against which the supplies from local sources have been planned at 699.97 MT, where 550 MT is likely from Coal India, 56 MT from Singareni Collieries Company and 93.97 MT from others, including captive coal blocks. Therefore the shortfall of 210.33 MT is expected to be met through imports by consuming sectors. The government has set an ambitious target of raising the output of state-owned Coal India to one billion tonnes by 2019-20 and may set a target of 550 MT coal output in 2015-16. State-owned Coal India, which accounts for over 80% of the domestic coal output, has missed the production target of 507 MT in previous fiscal by 3%, recording an output of 494.23 MT.