Leading Manufacturing Companies – Coal India Limited

The state-owned mining company, Coal India Limited (CIL), is currently headed by Gopal Singh. The post is so sought after that as many as 35 public sector employees, bureaucrats, officers belonging to the armed forces and private companies recently expressed interest for the position of CMD. Even as acting CMD, Singh has his work cut out for him.  
CIL has a projection of producing one billion tonne of coal by 2022. In fact, the company produced 554.14 million tonne of coal in 2016-17. “Hike in coal production in the last three years has helped mining major CIL save Rs 25,900 crore in foreign exchange,” according to Gopal Singh. Coal imports are said to have accounted for 25% of the country’s total coal consumption in 2015-16, and 23% in 2016-17.
Coal stock in at least over a dozen thermal power plants in the country has turned critical, according to a recent report by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. Singh has stressed on swift exploitation of domestic fossil fuel reserves in order to meet future demand and reduce the dependence on imports.
“The large planned new coal-based thermal capacity is likely to put pressure on coal resources. Coal-based power generation capacity of 125 GW in 2012 is likely to go up to more than 330-441 GW by 2040 (192 GW in FY 2017). The demand for these plants is likely to be first met by domestic coal, which will require quick exploitation of our reserves. Import dependence in oil and gas is understandable, given the poor reserves we have, but import dependence on coal – particularly non-coking coal – is something that can be addressed by swift exploitation of domestic coal reserves,” believes Singh.