Port capacity rings alarm bells as coal imports surge
4 Aug 2010, ET
prepare them to handle inflow of over 230 million tonnes of coal as the energy hungry country buys fuel overseas to feed its power plants.
The government will soon invite fresh investment to expand the existing coal berths to handle larger vessels and also award new coal berths at all major ports under an accelerated development programme. “An alarming situation has arisen as the country builds up its coal fired power generation capacity,” said a government official adding that the huge gap between demand and domestic supply will cause a surge in imports necessitating emergency handling measures at ports.
The demand-supply mismatch in coal is projected to increase from about 80 million tonnes by 2011-12 to over 230 million tonnes by 2016-17, according to official data.
“We are planning to advance expansion projects at all Indian ports and invite private investments in a big way to create infrastructure before the situation starts affecting power projects in the country,” the official said asking not to be named.
The government will ask all the dozen major ports of the country to expand coal handling facilities and set up exclusive coal berths at increased sea depths to facilitate entry of larger cargo ships. In addition, several intermediate ports will also permitted to set up additional coal berths. Public private partnership (PPP) projects will also be facilitated to faster completion of the development work.
The railways will also be asked to improve availability of rakes by decongesting identified locations for transporting the imported coal to consuming centres.
Poor infrastructure is already creating problems for some of the upcoming and running power plants to get coal in right quantity at the right time, which if not addressed could make it difficult for the country to add planned 100,000 MW capacity in the twelfth plan.
Indian ports just have just about adequate capacity to handle existing level of coal imports.
The issue has also been flagged in the mid-term appraisal of the Eleventh Plan. The document has said that by the end of the current plan period imported coal will account for 11.7% of the estimated demand as against earlier projected 7%. This will rise further to over 20% by the terminal year of Twelfth Plan (2012-17).
Despite this visible demand, investments in the ports sector have been low, projected at `40,647 crore during the Eleventh Plan, which is less than half of the original target of `87,995 crore.
Private investment in the port sector is projected at almost 40% below initial estimates.
