Government increases coal supply to northern power stations

NEW DELHI:The government on Tuesday increased coal supply to power projects in northern states that were operating at less capacity due to fuel shortage.

Coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal held an emergency meeting to take stock of coal availability at power plants of the country. The minister directed increasing coal loading to 180 rakes from the present 153 rakes. Of 180 rakes, 145 rakes would be supplied to power sector.

“In the case of north India power stations, average dispatch of coal has been around 36 rakes per day during current month. The minister directed to increase it to 49 rakes per day. It was decided that Badarpur station and Panipat station in Haryana will get more than the contracted quantity of 3 rakes and 5 rakes per day respectively,” an official statement said.

CIL had registered a growth of 5% till July in dispatch of coal to power stations and the power stations were carrying a comfortable coal stock of 13.2 million tonnes as on August 1, 2011 as compared to 11.5 million tonnes on the same date last year.