The Planning Commission on Tuesday said that the country’s coal demand is likely to touch 1,000 million tonnes (MT) by 2016 -17, much higher than estimated supply of 750 million.
“The demand of coal is estimated at 1,000 MT and we are assuming that domestic availability would be 750 MT,” Planning Commission Adviser (Energy) I A Khan said while addressing Indian Coal Markets Conference.
He also said the Plan panel has projected a growth of 7 per cent for commercial energy which includes coal, petroleum, hydro “Initially it was planned to have some 8—9 per cent growth,” Khan said.
He also said that in order to achieve expected GDP growth rate of 8.2 per cent, “we have to plan to increase the availability of energy by 7 per cent in terms of commercial energy which includes mainly coal“.
Earlier, the demand of the fossil fuel for 2016-17 was projected at 1,000 MT against a production of 800 MT, leaving a shortage of 200 MT.
The gap in demand and supply of coal widened to 161.5 MT last fiscal, an official statement earlier said, adding that the projected demand of coal was 696 MT in 2011—12, while the supply was 534.5 MT.
It further said that in 2010—11 the shortfall of coal was to the tune of 132.8 MT while in 2009—10 it was 90.5 MT.
As per annual plan for 2012—13, against the demand of 512 MT, the supply of the fossil fuel has been estimated at 404.7 MT, leaving a gap of 107 MT, to be met through imports.