Lucknow, Sep 4 (Agency) The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Monday raised questions on the latest order of the Union Ministry of Power to import coal and has demanded that the central government should pay the price of coal imported by the power generating houses of the states. It may be noted that in the order issued on September 1, the central government has stated that in view of the increased demand for electricity, there is a gap of 2 lakh tons per day in the month of August between the consumption and supply of coal in domestic coal-fired thermal power plants. In view of this, the Union Ministry has issued a directive that all thermal power plants of state government, central government and private sector should import 4 percent coal by March 2024 to meet the shortage of coal in thermal power plants running on domestic coal.
In a statement issued here, Chairman of AIPEF Shailendra Dubey said that the order issued by the Union Ministry clearly stated that the main reason for the difficulty in reaching coal from coal mines to thermal power stations is constraint of Railway rakes. He said that there is a shortage of rakes and due to the logistic constraint of the Railways, adequate coal is not reaching the thermal power houses. By giving statistics it has been said that by March 2024, domestic coal-fired thermal power plants will need 404 metric tonnes of coal, whereas due to the constraints of railways, availability of network and lack of rakes, only 397 metric tonnes of coal can be supplied. In such a situation, directives have been given to import 4 percent coal in order to maintain a proper stock of coal in all thermal power plants.
Dubey said that if coal is unable to reach the thermal power plants due to railway constraints, then it will be more difficult to reach the imported coal which will have to be brought from the port by Railway. The AIPEF has stated that it is very clear from the order of the Union Ministry that the reason for not getting adequate coal to the thermal power plants is due to the constraints of the Railways, in such a situation, putting additional load of imported coal on the thermal power plants of the state is not appropriate. Dubey said that in such a situation the price of imported coal should be given by the central government. He said that if the central government does not provide this amount, then this price will be recovered from the discoms by the power generating houses of the states and ultimately the burden will fall on the common consumer which will be unfair.