New Delhi: Amid reports of coal crisis in the country, Union Power Minister RK Singh and Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Monday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the Ministry of Home Affairs in the North Block.
The top officials from the Power Ministry, Coal Ministry and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) were also present in the meeting.
This comes a day after the Ministry of Coal on Sunday reassured the country that ample coal is available in the country to meet the demand for power plants.
In an official release, the Ministry said any fear of disruption in the power supply is entirely misplaced. “The coal stock at power plant end is about 72 lakh tonnes, sufficient for 4 days requirement, and that the Coal India Limited (CIL) end is more than 400 lakh tonnes, which is being supplied to the power plants,” the ministry said.
Further, the Minister noted that the domestic coal-based power generation has grown by nearly 24 per cent in this year (till September 2021) based on a robust supply from the coal companies.
“The daily average coal requirement at the power plants is about 18.5 lakh tonnes of coal per day whereas the daily coal supply has been around 17.5 lakh tonnes per day. Due to extended monsoons, the despatches were constrained. The coal available at the power plants is a rolling stock that gets replenished by the supplies from the coal companies on a daily basis. Therefore, any fear of coal stocks depleting at the power plant end is erroneous. In fact this year, domestic coal supply has substituted imports by a substantial measure,” it said.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said many Chief Ministers have written to the central government about the critical situation at power plants due to a coal shortage. “The situation is critical and many CMs have written about it to the central government. We all are working together to improve the situation,” he said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also flagged the issue of probable coal shortage.
“It is true there is a problem. As per our requirement, either we get it from NTPC or from private companies. But the supply is affected now. There are some reasons due to which such a situation has arisen. It is not only in Bihar, but also everywhere,” Kumar told media on Monday. (ANI)
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