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Railways discriminating against IPPs in coal loading: APP

January 3: The Association of Power Producers (APP), the apex body of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in India, has accused Railways of discriminating against the IPPs in loading of coal while favouring the public sector (PSU) utilities.

"There is a discriminatory approach exhibited by Indian Railways with regard to loading of coal wagons. We have collected data which shows that the percentage of loaded coal to the sanctioned quantity has been substantially higher for the PSU plants as compared to the IPP plants for coal supplies from certain Coal India (CIL) subsidiaries," a senior official of APP told ICMW.

He said, in 2012-13, coal supply to PSU power utilities from CIL was 88 percent of the contracted quantity, while the same for IPPs was only 65 percent.

"This matter has been taken up with the authorities on numerous occasions, but Railways still continues this discriminatory behaviour which is completely unjustified," the official said.