NEW DELHI: May 09 - The Times of India

Even as countrywide demand for electricity rises with the temperature, generation units across the country are finding it tough to cope with the situation owing to shortage of coal as state- owned monopoly Coal India Ltd has lowered its supply projection from 305 million tonnes to 292.15 million tonnes for 2008-09.

This means utilities will be running short of a total of 86.15 million tonnes of black diamond as they had projected a requirement of 378 million tonnes for the fiscal. Coal fuels nearly two-thirds of power generation in the country and any shortage will affect people's lives directly. Combined with the near-constant shortfall in gas supplies and seasonal problem with hydel units, the situation looks grim.

The country is already facing about 14% power shortage at peak hours.

Efforts to make up the shortfall through imports, as suggested by the power ministry, too will not provide a fool-proof solution.

One, the utilities have failed to tie up the quantities. Two, the number of ports that can handle coal is limited.

Three, even when coal is imported, lack of rail wagons and shortage of locomotives, come in the way of transporting consignments to the power plants for timely replenishment of stocks.

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