Coal news and updates

How to make coal suppliers more accountable

The country has 39 mt of coal in stock at various places. On the other hand, power producers are reeling under fuel shortage with a stock that would last for seven days. It is inconceivable that 39 mt of coal piled up in just one day. Hope the government take necessary action against all those responsibile for this situation

Nearly half of the Indian thermal power plants in the country, which depend upon coal, are reeling under fuel shortage with less than seven days in stock! The first step is to overcome such a dangerous situation by promulgating an ordinance, if necessary, to ensure that all these units have at least 15 days inventory, so that there is no shut down leading to a power crisis.

Set against this unfortunate hand to mouth existence, Power Minister, Piyush Goyal has just discovered that 39 million tonnes (mt) of coal are in our stocks, at various places, but not moved to or delivered to the power generating consumers! This would mean, most regrettably, that at various coordination points, nobody was doing his/ her bar chart right, to ensure that goods are on the "move" so as to reach point of consumption.

When monsoon begins, with India Meteorological Department (IMD)'s projections, everyone concerned ought to know the way wind blows and what type of rains can one expect in a given territory. And be prepared for it. It is also the time, when power generators plan shut downs for over hauling of their thermal plants, as power needs are lower at this point of time.

Take the case of Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corp (AP GenCo). They have announced shutdown of several of its thermal power plants in the state, as hydel power generation increases during the monsoon. AP GenCo will take up overhauling of a 500 MW and 2 x 210 MW plants at Dr Narla Tatarao Power Station in Vijayawada and another 210 MW at Rayalasemma Thermal power station. Generally, 15 to 30 days are needed for this overhaul and the Southern Regional Power Centre and the Central Electricity Authority has been notified with the shutdown schedule. In case of AP Genco, they expect to overhaul all their units by end of December each year, so as to render hassle-free service during summer.

Reverting back to India's main coal supplier, Coal India Ltd (CIL), against the target of 35.80 mt, CIL has achieved only 33.1 mt. Likewise, during the first four months of this fiscal, CIL production was only 141.34 mt against the output target of 148.43 mt. And the off-take during April-July was a target of 171.43 mt while only 157.59 mt was achieved. Power Minister, as also the power generators, needs to know what caused them to fail in this manner. Discussions and debates in the past have revealed the bottle-necks in the clearing of coal from pit heads, non-availability of rakes, or delays in getting them in time. Besides, the exclusive corridors for transporting the precious coal to points of consumption have not been made ready.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been proposing to develop inland waterways to overcome the communication bottlenecks in railway transportation, as the originally planned "dedicated" corridors are not yet ready and fully functional. Inland waterways, if planned and developed, would greatly reduce the strain and dependence on railways. Already, barges have begun supplying imported coal to the Farakka Super Thermal Plant in the absence of land based transport alternative. Inland waterway transportation would be cheaper and definitely congestion free.

From the press reports, it appears that the NDA will endeavour to give a decisive push to make Ganges-Hooghly waterway navigable for freight movement by vying for a Word Bank loan upto $1 billion (about Rs6,000 crore) and for which the Inland Waterway Authority will be having discussions with them. The government plans to have a few barrages on the Ganga from Allahabad to Haldia to facilitate movement of larger vessels.

As a matter of interest relating to inland waterway utilisation, China has already 15,000 kms of navigable waterways and hopes to add 5,000 kms more in the next decade. On the contrary, India has not made much headway in this direction. However, it plans to spend Rs1 lakh crore on the development of waterways of which Rs20,000 crore are expected to be financed by the government itself, while the rest may come from borrowing or from public sector.

Such developments will take time to achieve. However, what is of immediate importance is to have top priority consultations amongst the Ministry of Coal, Power, Railways and the Coal India officials, duly and actually represented by the CMDs of the seven subsidiary coal mining companies to know the ground situation to move the coal piling up everywhere. Information from CIL could be "doctored" and need not necessarily be as per the ground situation as experienced by the shipping mining unit.

It is inconceivable that 39 mt of coal did not pile up in just one day. This backlog must have been going on for months and it is truly a shame that all the concerned officials did not take adequate steps to overcome the impasse, and let it grow in size to this level. They need to answer why they let this grow into a big balloon.

All the officials concerned in all these Ministries are to be held ACCOUNTABLE and those who did not do their job need to be given a golden handshake at the worst. No government can tolerate this sloppy work that hurts the nation. Railways must make the rakes available and ensure speedy movement of the coal cargo on a priority basis.

No excuses. CIL needs to deliver the goods.

Source: Moneylife