With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office working on urgent measures to address the ‘coal crisis’, the private power industry’s hue and cry over the issue seems to have subsided for now. Experts, however, say private developers have no right to complain, as they have failed to develop their own captive coal reserves over the past two decades. Currently, India requires 690 million tonnes (mt) of coal a year to fire plants, largely in the infrastructure sectors of power and steel. Domestic production was originally expected to touch 680 mt by the end of the current Plan period in March. This was scaled down to 630 mt in the mid-term appraisal and again to 554 mt at present, creating a 136 mt gap between demand and supply.