Kolkata, Jan 2 (IANS): Coal India Limited (CIL) on Wednesday said dry fossil fuel supplies increased by 7.6 per cent to 358.86 million tonne (mt) to thermal power plants (TPPs) of the country during April-December period of the current fiscal, as compared to 333.38 mt supplied in the corresponding period last year.

The increased supplies of about 25 mt in absolute terms, to TPPs came on the back of a 5.7 per cent growth in average loading per day during the first nine months of the FY 2019.

Coal stocks at power stations witnessed an increase of 6.5 mt from that of 10.1 mt at the end of October 2018 to 16.6 mt as of December 2018 end, a CIL official said.

"Coal stocks at our end too are slowly building up", said an official of the company.

The increasing trend of coal stocks would help meet the increased demand for coal.

Pithead coal stock ending December 2018 was 23.41 mt which was 22.05 mt at the beginning of the referred month, official said, adding that the miner liquidated 32.14 mt of coal during the nine months of the ongoing FY 2019.

At the beginning of the fiscal 2018-19 coal stock at pitheads of CIL was 55.55 mt.

CIL's coal production, at 412.45 mt, recorded 28.54 mt increase during April-December of the current fiscal, compared to 383.92 mt in corresponding period year ago.

Total coal off-take was at 444.60 mt in period under review, against 421.43 mt during comparable period last year, clocking a growth of 5.5 per cent.