The government is confident of meeting the 88,000 MW power capacity addition target by 2017 if the fuel issue is sorted out,Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said. "Target you can say is over-ambitious but we did not want a lesser target because if there is less target there is less pressure," he said. "There are challenges but we will find out the solution. The 11th plan (2007-12) was more critical,now there are more than one equipment manufacturers.there is no problem of equipment.only fuel problem is there,we have to work it out," Shinde said. The government had set a target of 42,000 MW in the 10th plan period (2002-07) but only 50 per cent of the capacity was achieved. "We could do only 50 per cent of the 42,000 MW target in the 10th plan and in the 11th plan it was 78,000 MW,which was brought down to 62,000 MW in the mid-term appraisal. we could do 55,000 MW," he said. "This time (12th plan period) fuel linkage for 76,000 MW is already in place," he added. The 88,000 MW capacity addition target includes about 8,000 MW nuclear capacity and some of the projects which were earlier scheduled in the 11th plan will be carried forward in the 12th plan,he added. The government is of the the view that faster land procurement and increase in coal production will help the country in achieving the 88,000 MW capacity addition target in the next five years. Shinde had earlier said that the issues of fuel and land availability have to be addressed for setting up new power stations in the coming years. The government has also asked state-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) to raise production to meet the demands of the power sector. The company plans to produce nearly 470 million tonnes of coal during the current financial year (2012-13). CIL missed its revised 2011-12 production target as it achieved only 436 million tonnes as against 447 million tonnes.
