Chennai, Oct 12 (PTI) Tamil Nadu today urged the Coaland Railways Ministry to take steps to provide imported coaldue to the critical stock situation in the state.
In a letter addressed to the Coal and Railway MinisterPiyush Goyal, State Electricity Minister P Thangamani saidthere was less realisation from coal firms that supplied tothe state.
Thangamani requested Goyal to instruct Coal India Ltdand Railway authorities concerned to supply 15 rakes of coalon daily basis to manage the critical coal stock situation.
Due to less realisation from coal companies, out ofthe 210 MW units, 6-7 units of Tamil Nadu Generation andDistribution Corporation have been shut down, he said.
"The current average coal stock at TANGEDCO's thermalpower station is only 3.3 days requirement against normallevel of 30 days," Thangamani said.
Thangamani said he has advised the state electricityboard to approach central public sector agencies for urgentsupply of imported coal so that power outages were avoided.
The minister sought Goyal's immediate intervention inthe matter and to instruct Coal India and Railway authoritiesfor coal supply.
He also cited last month's letter by Chief MinisterK Palaniswami to the ministry urging to advise the Coal andRailway authorities to allocate around 72,000 tons of coal byallotting 20 rakes per day to "to manage present criticalcoal and power situation."Noting that the major supply for TANGEDCO was fromMahanadi Coal Fields Ltd (MCL), Talcher unit, he said, therealisation was about 50 per cent of linkage and realisationfrom other coal companies was also less due to "seasonal rainand railway congestion."Referring to the MoU with Singareni Collieries CompanyLtd for supply of one million tons of coal through rail toMettur Thermal Power Station, he alleged that for the pastcouple of months, SCCL has not supplied any coal.
"In the above scenario, TANGEDCO may not be in aposition to meet the grid demand of the state," he said.
Meanwhile, deputy chief minister O Panneerselvamalong with Thangamani met Goyal in New Delhi today andformally sought his intervention in the matter. PTI VIJBN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.