Punjab Newsline
Power secretary expresses concern over critical coal stocks
VINOD KUMAR GUPTA
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
NEW DELHI: The power secretary, Anil Razdan, has expressed serious concerns over the critical coal stock position prevailing in a large number of thermal power stations across the country.

He urged the department of Ports and the ministry of railways for prompt berthing of vessels and transportation of coal, so that further losses in generation, on account of shortage of coal, are avoided. He asked the power utilities to place order for imported coal for next financial year before February. He assigned a deadline of one week for the power utilities to designate unloading areas for imported coal, so that the turn around time for the rakes could be minimized.

Meanwhile NTPC has decided to import more than 10 million tones of coal to overcome the crippling coal shortage problem being faced by various thermal plants.

The coal shortage at various thermal plants has lead to huge generation losses and these include Farakha, Rihand, Talcher, Vindhyachal and Kahalgoan. The imported coal will come handy in reducing the coal shortage problems.

According to sources in NTPC the utility has already placed orders for 8.25 million tonnes through state trading corporation.NTPC has so far been able to import just 1.78 MT further out of which only 0.84 MT has been received by the utility. The remainder of 0.94 MT of coal still remains at various ports. NTPC now intends to order for an additional 2 MT by January 2009 for use in the current financial year.

According to sources the reasons behind coal shortage at thermal plants is short supply by central coalfields limited. CCL is facing frequent equipment break downs at mines and other coal handling related problems.