Badal seeks coal allocation for Rajpura plant
Bahadurjeet Singh

PROJECT DESERVES HIGHER PRIORITY FOR COAL LINKAGE AS OTHER OPTIONS NOT AVAILABLE BECAUSE OF LARGE DISTANCE FROM COAL FIELDS, PORTS, SAYS CM
Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has sought allocation of coal from the union coal ministry for a 700 MW unit of the Rajpura thermal project being executed by engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

The present capacity of the Rajpura Thermal plant is 2,100 MW.

Two units of 700 MW each were awarded under competitive bidding to L&T while L&T and the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) will together add another 700 MW to the thermal plant.

Badal in a letter to the union coal ministry said the Rajpura project deserves higher priority for coal linkage as the options of using imported coal, coal from eauction sources or commercially mined coal were not available because of the large distance from coal fields as well as ports.

Moreover, L&T has a reputation of timely execution of projects, the chief minister's letter said.

The central electricity authority has, however, not recommended the project for early clearance of coal linkage as L&T did not pass the benchmarks specified by the authority.

Badal stated in his letter that early recommendation for grant of coal linkage will facilitate construction activities, thereby, resulting in early commissioning.

L&T had submitted its application for grant of 4 million tonnes per annum of F-grade coal linkage for first two units of the thermal plant in July last year ­ for which it got the coal ministry's approval.

In March this year, the Punjab government requested the coal ministry for allocation of coal blocks in Jharkhand to the PSPCL for three of its upcoming thermal projects -the 2,540 MW Gidderbaha project being executed by NTPC, the 500 MW Bathinda thermal Plant Ext-II and the 500 MW Lehra Mohabbat Stage-III.

The coal blocks in question are the Pachwara (south), Babupara (north), Kanakpura and Rautpara­north Karanpura, all located in Jharkhand.

The PSPCL already has coal blocks in Pachwara (central), near the additional coal blocks it seeks.

The Punjab government maintains that allocation of coal blocks will help in mitigating the power shortages in the state in the coming years.

The new power projects will add to the economic growth of the state and the country, the Badal government says.

To fuel its ambitious capacity addition, the PSPCL will require mineable coal reserves of 1,200 to 1,500 million tonnes