HPGCL signs pact with SBI, Railway for e-payment

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd on Wednesday entered into a tri-partite agreement with Indian Railways and State Bank of India for electronic payment (e-payment) of freight for coal supplied to its thermal power stations.

A spokesman of HPGCL said here today that with this agreement, timely payment of advance coal freight to Railways will be ensured and loading of coal rakes for HPGCL Power Stations shall not be affected due to non-availability of advance funds with Railways.

He said that as per present practice, 15-day advance freight is to be deposited with the Railways, but under e-payment agreement HPGCL will have to pay only 5 days average freight in advance through letter of credit.
Due to less advance paid, he said, HPGCL shall save around Rs 6 crore per year, thereby bringing down the cost of generation.

He added that the tri-partite agreement has also been signed with East Central Railways and South Eastern Railways, to whom HPGCL is paying a monthly freight of around Rs 52 crore and Rs 11 crore respectively for supply of coal to Panipat Thermal Power Station.

He informed that similar agreement shall also be signed with two other railway companies namely Central Railways and South Eastern Central Railways shortly.