(T.E.T)
While the coal shortage crisis may seem over for some power plants, another crisis is lurking for generation stations located far from mines These plants — termed ‘foreign’ by Indian Railways — have begun suffering because of bias in allotment of rakes among railway zones in the race to post higher despatch figures.
Last week, Rattan India Power-operated Amaravati power plant in Maharashtra shut down one of its units due to coal shortage resulting from insufficient rake allotment by SECR, the south east central zone of the railways The power ministry on January 17 issued an memo seeking details of remedial action taken by the Railways as grumblings from private power plants facing similar situation grew louder, government sources have told Times of India. Industry sources said L&T’s Nhava and Vedanta NSE 0.54 %’s Talwandi Sabo power plants are among other plants facing similar predicament.
The trend is more pronounced in zones with heavy-duty coal lifting such as SECR, which largely services SECL (South Eastern Coalfields Ltd), Coal India Ltd’s largest mine. After last year’s coal crisis, the power ministry had in December asked plants to import 10% of their coal requirement.
