New Delhi: Amid fuel shortages, power producers have been advised to import 54 million tonnes (MT) of coal in the current fiscal, the government said Monday.
"For the year 2014-15, power utilities have been advised to import 54 MT coal to meet the shortfall," Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in the Rajya Sabha.
Stating that the power utilities, including NTPC, are importing coal to bridge the shortfall in availability of domestic coal, the minister said that during the April-June period of 2014 as against annual target of 16.6 MT, the country's largest power producer has so far imported 3.6 MT of dry fuel.
"In view of shortage of domestic coal as of now, it would not be feasible to meet 100 percent requirement of power producer (including NTPC), from domestic coal production alone," he said.
In reply to another question, Goyal said that import of coal in the last fiscal was 168.44 MT, while in 2012-13 the country imported 145.785 MT of dry fuel.
