Hitting out at Coal Indiadetractors, CIL Chairman and Managing Director S Narsing Raotoday said those making a hue and cry over stranded powerprojects for lack of fuel have themselves fallen short oftheir target in mining coal from blocks allocated to them.
"They (these companies) are making a big noise here andthere that their projects do not get coal and are stranded.
Someone should ask them what about their responsibility fortheir failures," Rao told PTI in an interview.
Coal India Ltd (CIL), which accounts for 84 per cent ofthe country's total coal production of about 540 milliontonnes, has been facing sharp criticism from public andprivate sector power companies for falling short of itsproduction target.
Besides, the coal producer has also been blamed for poorquality of the fuel. NTPC has also brought down by 10,000 MWin its 12th Plan capacity target to about 65,000 MW.
NTPC Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhuryhad said last week that "the quality of coal that we receivedfrom Coal India is poor, we have informed the Power Ministryabout that".
Rao said CIL with reserves of 60 billion tonnes produced435 million tonnes in 2011-12, while the companies which wereallotted 48 billion tonnes since 1997 onwards for captive usemostly for power generation could mine barely 36 milliontonnes in the last fiscal.
"If you give directly to the captive users, they have adirect stake. Coal India is a business entity. Moreover,captive users have much more stake than just producing coal...
No-one is talking about them," Rao said.
Moreover, most of the allottees of the captive coalblocks have also procured supply commitments from CIL underthe Fuel Supply Agreements(FSAs), he said.
As many as 196 mines with 48 billion tonnes reserves havebeen allotted to public and private sector firms like NTPCand DVC for captive use since 1997.
Rao added that the dismal show by captive block allottees also indicated that "there is some inherent limitation in thesector". He added that despite battling a number of issueslike poor infrastructure in coalfields, CIL could achieve 435MT output last fiscal.
Power major NTPC which has so far not entered into FSAwith Coal India was alloted six coal blocks 2004 onwards.
Out of the six blocks, three -- Chatti-Bariatu, Kerandariand Chatti-Bariatu (South)-- were taken back by Coal Ministrylast year for non-production, while the Ministry later inprinciple agreed to revert back the same to NTPC on requestsfrom the Power Ministry.
Coal India is the world's largest producer of thedry-fuel. CIL has to supply 80 per cent of the committedquantity of coal under FSA to 48 power firms having a capacityof about 30,000 MW under a presidential directive.