In what could be regarded as a severe jolt to Coal India Limited (CIL), Bangladesh is not interested in importing coal from India, but likely to procure from South Africa.
In a recent media interview, Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, the Energy Minister of Bangladesh, made it clear that the Bangladesh government is evaluating coal import options, but India is being kept out of the option list. He cited low quality of Indian coal as the reason behind excluding India. Furthermore, the minister said that South African coal is preferred due to the superior quality. However, no country has been finalized as yet for the coal imports, the minister said.
The exposition has apparently shattered CIL’s coal export plan. CIL was looking at Bangladesh to export its surplus stock as demand for coal is growing in that country due to that government stressing upon improving the power supply by setting up several coal-based power plants.
CIL was particularly eyeing the 1320 MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, being executed jointly by India’s NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board at the Rampal district in that country.
As a matter of fact, coal production in India has increased remarkably due to the constructive efforts of the Government of India. Surplus stocks have increased as supply surpassed demand in the country.
In a recent seminar at Kolkata, Anil Swarup, the former Coal Secretary, said that CIL was bullish on exporting the surplus coal to Bangladesh, and top officials of the state-run miner were in talks with prospective buyers in Bangladesh; however, no definitive agreement was attained until then.
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