Coal news and updates

Coal strike won’t snap power supply in West Bengal

Bengal won't suffer any power pangs due to the five-day coal strike that began on Tuesday as the state government has adequate coal stocks to tide over the crisis.

"Our planning and strategy for the future has paid off. We have coal stocks of 5 lakh tones, which is adequate to take care of the supply crunch," state power minister Manish Gupta said on Wednesday, a day before Bengal hosts the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit at Rajarhat New Town.

The coal strike has sent ripples in industry circles and state power utilities as 90% of Bengal's power plants are thermal based — they depend on coal to light up boilers. There have been instances during the Left Front regime when power supply was disrupted due to coal shortage or supply of a bad mix of coal during monsoon. State power utilities rule out any such disruption this time.

The all-India strike has cast a shadow on lifting of coal in Bengal which has a large coal belt in the Raniganj-Jamuria area in Burdwan.

Source: The Times of India