Coal India relaxes norms to ease availability of dry fuel

The minimum per annum requirement of the consumer has been downsized to a quarter from 1 million tonnes of coal to 0.25 million tonnes," a CIL official said.

Coal India Ltd has relaxed the norms for "mine-specific coal supply" policy, which would ease availability of the dry fuel to consumers having less than one million tonnes of requirement per annum. The move would benefit a large number of the mining major's linked small consumers, the company said.

"The policy norms have been relaxed considerably to accommodate a greater number of consumers under the ambit of the policy. The minimum per annum requirement of the consumer has been downsized to a quarter from 1 million tonnes of coal to 0.25 million tonnes," a CIL official said.

The policy was conceived in 2011 to enable the consumer to benefit from assured supply from a preferred source and gain from a reduction in logistics costs. However, the old policy was applicable to consumers having a minimum requirement of one million tonnes of coal per annum.

Further, the mine from which the coal was sourced had to have a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum. The relaxed norms bring down the eligibility from 2.5 million tonnes per annum production capacity to one million tonnes per annum.