The coal supply by state-owned Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) to the power sector also dropped by 38.6 per cent to 2.86 MT in April, from over 4.66 MT in the year-ago period, the report said. With the power sector, a major consumer of the dry fuel, witnessing a drop in fuel consumption amid the lockdown, CIL has shifted its focus to overburden removal -- the process of removing the top soil and rock to expose coal seams in its open cast mines. The enhancement in overburden removal will ..
Over 95 per cent of CIL's production comes from its 171 open cast mines. The PSU removed 114.43 million cubic metres of overburden in its open cast mines in April 2020, as compared to 104.22 million cubic metres a year ago, registering an increase of 9.7 per cent. A Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report said that as on April 30, 2020, there were 50.89 MT of coal stocked up at the power houses in India, enough to last for 31 days. CIL itself has a pit-head stock of about 76 MT as on April 30. The PSU is in regular touch with its customers, especially in the southern states, and is pursuing them to increase the intake of domestic coal as a substitute for imported coal.
