Coal news and updates

The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, on Wednesday, directed secretary to the union government to file an affidavit on coal import policy and its consumption ratio. A division bench comprising Justices Bhushan Gavai and Chandrakant Bhadang also sought the secretary's response on production of domestic coal, before June 18.

 

The court's directives came while hearing a PIL by Anil Wadpalliwar through his counsel Shrirang Bhandarkar, alleging that due to ongoing tussle between WCL and Mahagenco, all consumers are unnecessarily forced to shell out more for the power supply. He also claimed that a steep hike in the generation cost is due to short supply of domestic coal and import of costly coal by the power utilities.

 

During one of the hearings, the Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CIMFR) after examining raw coal at loading and unloading point had pointed out that coal supplied by WCL had high ash content ranging between 47% and 52% as against prescribed 34%.

 

Mahagenco in its affidavit through senior counsel KH Deshpande stated that it had paid Rs1,350 crore more to WCL despite receiving inferior quality of coal. The entity blamed WCL for duping it by charging exorbitant amount for inferior quality. As a result, it suffered a loss of Rs800 crore every year since 2009 when they inked pact with WCL for fuel supply. However, the court then recalled its earlier orders of independent third-party sampling of coal at loading and unloading points.

 

 

Source: ToI