Nagpur: In the midst of a national coal crisis that led to disruption to electricity supply in various places, documents distributed with TOI had revealed that the center had warned Maharashtra to store coal in a series of letters, the date in early February last year.
On Tuesday, the State Energy Minister Nitin Raut has blamed the Limited Indian Coal and the Syak Mismanagement Center.
On February 5, 2020, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi had written to the Head of State Minister for the State of Uddhav Thackeray, asking enough state power plants.
“According to the central electricity authority report, the stock of coal in the Maharashtra power plant is sufficient for consumption of 23 days.
It seems that stock is convenient for now but may not be enough for summer needs,” Joshi said.
He then directed Thackeray to tell the power utility to continue sending a complete program for coal shipments to maintain their coal supply according to the norm.
“It’s very important in the view of the fact that our country imported around 235 metric tons of coal last year, opening fire on more than Rs 17 Lakh Crore,” Joshi added.
Joshi further shows that the total must be paid to the Indian Coal Limited (CIL) by Mahagenco more than Rs 800 Crore.
In another letter written on April 26 this year by Alok Kumar, Secretary of Power, to Sitaram Kunte, Secretary of the Head of State, has shown that many Maharashtra power plants have “low coal stocks”.
“Also, Mahagenco has an extraordinary because of RS 2,852 Crore to a coal company.
South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) and Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) need to increase the supply of coal in all thermal power plants from Maharashtra so that Adequate coal stocks can be built to fulfill the summer demand.
“A set of other documents showed that in March this year, Cil wrote to general managers of various heat power plants in the state, including those in Bhusawal, Chandrapur, Koradi, Nashik and Parli, warnings that the station brought less days of coal stock.
as against normative requirements for 20 days.
“CIL will not be responsible for all possibilities related to the relevant stock,” said clearly said.
Recently with September 28 this year, Joshi wrote to Raut, stating that considering a sudden surge in coal-based generations, supply to the power unit had been prioritized.
“Tahanu thermal power plant can be advised to lift coal through road mode so that coal stock is built,” the letter was added.
Raut on Tuesday said the country faced a shortage of electricity supply of 3,500 to 4,000 MW and blamed the “management error and lack of planning” in the CIL section for the situation.
“CIL failed to ensure timely supply of coal for thermal power plants in the state,” he said.