Coal news and updates

Non-stop power to Kashi: Centre reciprocates with extra coal

A day after UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav assured 24 hours power supply to PM Narendra Modi's constituency Varanasi, Centre agreed to provide more coal to all seven units of Anpara power plant in UP. Coal will be provided from the National Coalfields Limited (NCL) fields in Singrauli.

Anpara A and B with five units, all owned by UP government, have been running below their installed capacity of 1630Mw because of low supply of coal. Likewise, of the two units (600 mw each) in Anpara C, owned by Lanco, only one was functional and has been running on coal backup. The other unit which provides power to all UP has been shut down nearly a week ago.

On Tuesday, the NCL agreed to raise the coal supply for Anpara A and B from 25,000 tonne per day to 30,000 tonne per day. It also agreed to increase coal supply for Anpara C from 11,500 tonne per day to 18,000 tonne per day. UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) managing director A P Mishra confirmed that the utility hopes to see the idle lying unit of 600Mw starting up in a day or two. The unit provides 100% power supply to the state.

The development came a day after UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav asked the UPPCL officials to negotiate with NCL for more supply of coal to its power plants. On Tuesday, a team of officials led by Mishra flew off to Singrauli for the purpose, successfully.

As a matter of fact, the poor power supply in UP had become a cause of spat between the state and Centre, with the latter raising an ante over UP government not making adequate measures to smoother power supply. The issue had rather snowballed into a political row after BJP MLA from Varanasi, Shyam Deo Rai Chaudhary, sitting on indefinite fast.

Akhilesh, on the other hand, has been pointing out absence of regular coal supply as one of the biggest constraint to power generation in UP. In fact, he has been shooting out letters to the Centre raising his concern over improper coal supply affecting the generation capacity of power plants in UP.

Source: The Times of India