CIL rules out privatisation buzz, says no coal shortage

Ramgarh: India is not facing any scarcity of coal and the output of Coal India Ltd (CIL) is more than the country's power demand, the mining behemoth's interim Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Singh said on Sunday.

Singh said the miner registered a high growth rate of 28 per cent output in FY17 over the last fiscal, while the average rise in power demand in the country was at 10.3 per cent.

Coal India is fully capable to fulfil the coal demand in India, he said, adding the company has plans to open new mines in the future.

Singh, who is the head of Central Coalfields Ltd, was given the additional charge of CMD of Coal India on September 1, following the retirement of Sutirtha Bhattacharya.

He also made it clear that there would be no privatisation of the state-owned mining major.

Talking about the Magadh coal mine in Jharkhand, which is the biggest open caste mine in Asia, Singh said that coal output in the mine has been reduced due to dispatch-related problems.

The output is likely to increase after completion of the miner's Tori-Shivpur rail project, he said.

Singh greeted Coal Minister Piyush Goyal, who was today elevated to the Cabinet rank and also given charge of the Railway Ministry.