Coal news and updates

NTPC expects coal import to jump 63% in FY2015

Arup Roy Choudhury chairaman of India's largest power producer, NTPC Limited, said that the company will import about two-thirds more coal this fiscal year, as it looks to meet the country's growing power needs amid an acute shortage of coal in a sector hamstrung by scandals.

Mr Choudhury said that the state run company's total coal requirement for the financial year ending March 2015 is estimated at 177 million metric tonnes, up from 158.57 million metric tonne in the last fiscal year.

He said that the gap would largely be met by importing 17 million metric tonne of coal, as against 10.39 million metric tonne it imported in the previous fiscal.

The country's top court on Monday ruled that allocations of over 200 coal blocks in India made since 1993 were arbitrary and illegal, stoking concerns that India may have to import vast amounts of coal to keep the lights on.

Source - Reuters