May 17, 2008

Indian coal demand may reach 731 million tonnes in 5 years

Mr Dasari Narayana Rao union minister of state for coal said that India's demand for coal for power generation over the next 5 years will be 731 million tonnes.

Mr Rao said that "The total import by various consumers during 2006-07 was 48.80 million tonnes and as per available information during 2007-08, till September 2007 the total import by various consumers was about 26 million tonnes."

He added that major production bottlenecks at coal mines run by Coal India Limited were caused by problems with land acquisition.