Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Saturday expressed his happiness over the Coal Ministry's remarkable achievement of attaining 22 lakh tonne coal dispatch to thermal power plants on October 28, the ministry said in a statement.

Joshi complimented coal companies, including state-owned CIL, for record supply of 22 lakh tonnes of the dry fuel to thermal power plants.

Taking to his Twitter handle, the Minister informed that out of the said quantity, 18 lakh tonne coal has been the contribution of Coal India Ltd (CIL).

"Happy to share that total coal dispatch to thermal power plants recorded 22 lakh tonnes on Thursday. Out of this, Coal India HQ's contribution has been 18 lakh tonnes. I would like to congratulate all coal companies for this feat & urge them to keep increasing production & offtake," read Joshi's tweet.

On Thursday, the union minister said CIL has stepped up fuel supply to meet the increased demand of the power sector and arrest shortages at thermal power plants caused due to rising cost of imported coal.

The government had on Thursday said supply of coal to thermal power plants (TPPs) has been rising consistently, which is evident from the rise in stock at power plants.

“Coal supply to power plants has indicated steady increase for the last many days,” the coal ministry had said in a statement.

Supplies to TPPs have been increasing consistently “which is evident from the rise in stock at the power plant end which has started rising and average increase during last one week is more than two lakh tonnes per day,” it had added.

As per a Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report, the coal stock with power plants stood at 9.028 million tonnes (MT) as on October 26, 2021.

Image courtesy: ANI