New coal allocation

The Indian Ministry of Coal has allotted coal linkage of 84Mt for the power sector for January-March 2005 period which is 10Mt more compared to the corresponding period in the previous fiscal. The ministry has also allotted 4.35Mt for the cement industry for the fourth quarter of the current fiscal.

The short-term coal linkage for the quarter was approved by the Standing Linkage Committee (SLC) headed by Pradeep Kumar, additional secretary, coal, last week. According to officials, around 130 power plants and about 70 cement plants were granted linkages by the committee.

In the cement sector, 26 plants in the southern region will get the maximum of 1.5Mt, this is followed by 10 plants in central region with about 1Mt, and 13 plants in the eastern region with 0.7Mt. The linkages of coal demand is primarily done with the objective of planning of coal supplies, keeping in view indigenous coal resources as well as the need to supply fuel of appropriate quality to the consumers and at the same time making the most economic use of the available capacity for production and of coal, officials explained.