Coal India dismisses privatisation buzz, says no coal shortage

State owned coal mining major, Coal India Limited dismissed all speculations suggesting the privatisation of the company as its interim MD Gopal Singh stated that the India is not suffering from a scarcity of coal and the output of Coal India Limited surpasses the power demand of the company.
 
Singh further said that the company possesses the capacity to fulfill the coal demand of India and has plans to expand and open new mines in the future.
 
Referring to the company’s Magadh coal mine in Jharkhand, Singh said that the coal output has been disrupted as a result of dispatch related problems and will most likely increase after the completion of the miner’s Tori-Shivpur rail project.    
 
While the average increase in power demand in India stood at 10.3 per cent, Coal India had posted a high growth rate of 28 per cent output for the financial year 2017 on a year-on-year basis.  
 
The stock had hit its 52-week high of Rs 341 on September 2, 2017, while the stock had hit its 52-week low of Rs 234 on August 11, 2017.     
 
At 11:28 hrs IST, Coal India Limited was trading at Rs 245.20, up by 2.74 per cent on BSE on September 4, 2017. The stock had hit an intraday high of Rs 245.60 per share.