RAICHUR: The Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS) which was facing paucity of coal heaved a sigh of relief with sufficient number of coal rakes arriving in the past two days from western and Mahanadi coal fields and Singareni collieries.
On Friday night, the station received 11 rakes of coal with each being 3,500 metric tonnes. On Saturday also it received four rakes. At present, the station has a stock of 70,000 metric tonnes. The thermal station has eight units. With each unit consuming 3,000 metric tonnes per day, the station requires 2,4000 tonnes each day.
Executive director of the station, Bhaskar, said, “The station is getting coal at the most for two days and not more than that. It is the situation in all the thermal power stations across the country.” On the other hand, the railways claimed demurrage charge of `6,000 per hour against the delay in coal unloading. “The railways have been sending four to six rakes at a time and the RTPS men take time to unload the coal. Paying demurrage to the railways is not a new thing for the RTPS,” said Bhaskar.
The authorities paid a demurrage charge of `2,0000 to 2,5000 per day. The authorities claimed the demurrage charge would be reimbursed by the railways. However, there is no information of it being paid yet.