NEW DELHI: Coal India Limited (CIL), India’s largest coal miner, on Friday said it has sufficient coal supplies to meet the anticipated rise in power demand during the summer season.
According to the company, coal stocks at domestic coal-based power plants stood at nearly 55 million tonnes (MT) as of February 25 — the highest ever for this period. In addition, there is a transit stock of 5.5 MT of coal at goods sheds, washeries, and ports combined. Coal India’s producing subsidiaries were holding sizeable pithead coal stocks of around 115 MT as of February 26, 2026, which are expected to increase further by the close of the fiscal year.
Moreover, CIL said that its three-layer buffer across the supply chain — coal inventory at CIL’s pitheads, coal stocks at thermal power plants, and ready-to-extract in-situ coal in its mines — assures comfortable coal availability as the summer season begins.
The total readily available coal across these sources is approximately 175.5 MT. This level of domestic coal sufficiency in the system can meet any spurt in power demand as well as demand from other sectors, dispelling concerns about coal shortages. The in-situ coal exposure at mines contributing to 90% of CIL’s total annual output was 60.2 MT at the end of the first fortnight of February 2026.
This means large quantities of coal have already been uncovered through overburden removal and are ready for extraction and supply at short notice. Higher domestic coal availability could also help reduce imports. Meanwhile, international coal prices have shown an upward trend as of February 2026.
“The cumulative quantity of CIL’s pithead stock, plant stock at domestic coal based thermal power stations and exposed coal in-situ provides strong operational assurance”, said a senior official of CIL.