In a first, Coal India Limited (CIL) on Wednesday said that it has floated tenders for coal imports of 2.416 million tonnes (MT) amid rising power demand in the country.
"The coal being sourced on behalf of the state generating companies (gencos) and independent power plants (IPPs) Is based on the indents received from them. it is for July-September period of the current fiscal year," the government-owned coal mining and refining corporation said in a statement.
There is a provision in the tender to accommodate a variation of above or below 30 per cent of the bid quantity. The coal being sought is 5000 GAR (gross as received) thermal grade can, it added.
The development comes after CIL's Board gave its approval on 2 June for the company to proceed ahead with the issuance of two international tenders for sourcing coal from overseas, a short term and a medium term tender.
CIL also mentioned that the Centre had nominated it as a centralised agency to augment coal supplies to state genres and IPPs through impart of coal, at a time when the demand for coal is high.
"The current short term tender for import of coal, for Q2 of FY23, is source agnostic. This means the coal can be sourced from any country," the company highlighted, adding that CIL has within a week of receiving indents from the 7 State Gencos and 19 IPPs, for a total of 2.41.6 MTs of coal, finalised and floated the tender.
The last date for the receipt of bids is 29th June. There is an option of pre-bid meeting on 14th of June to seek clarification on any nuances of the tender, it added.
The coal imported shall be routed through 9 ports located in east and west coasts of the country, CIL said.
Meanwhile, CIL shares on Thursday traded 0.76 per cent higher at Rs 199.15 apiece on BSE during early trade hours.
Earlier this week, Union Power Minister R K Singh had said that electricity generation companies (gencos) have started the process of importing coal for blending purposes.
The comments came after the Ministry of Power had on May 18 warned that if orders for coal imports are not placed by May 31, 2022, and the imported fuel does not start arriving at power plants by June 15, the defaulter gencos will have to increase their imports to the extent of 15 per cent.
If blending with domestic coal is does not start by June 15, the domestic allocation of the concerned defaulters' thermal power plants will be further reduced by 5 percent, the ministry had said in a letter to state governments and power generators.