If despatches from Coal India are of any significance, the power plants in the country are now supplied with more than their daily quota of coal.
According to a senior Coal India official, as against the targeted supply of 133 rakes a day to the power sector throughout the year; the coal major has despatched 140 rakes a day between October 10 and October 20. Each rake can carry 3,500 tonnes or more coal.
Combining despatches through dedicated modes like merry-go-round, the total daily supply to power sector now touches 9 lakh tonnes, higher than the targeted levels.
“From October 10, the despatches have been consistently higher than the targeted levels ensuring an improvement in stock position at power plants. However, considering the supply shortfall earlier this month, the total supplies during this month, are lower than the promised quantities,” the official said.
As on October 13, nearly half of the country's thermal power capacities were operating with four-days of coal stock as against the prescribed stock of 15-30 days. Meanwhile, CIL has been asking the Coal Ministry to stop granting “tapering linkages” to owners of captive coal blocks.
No tapering linkage
The scheme offers captive blocks owners 3 to 4 year window to develop the mines and enjoy requisite supply of coal for linked end-use plants at notified price. Considering possible delay in mine development, CIL offers linkage for another four years — based on a tapering (or reducing) allocation formula — at 40 per cent premium.
The scheme has proved to a drag on CIL, as the coal major was found diverting nearly 10 million tonnes of thermal coal to captive block allottees (many of which made little progress in developing the mines), sacrificing the interest of the regular consumers including that of the power sector.
“We (CIL) were always against the idea of offering such privileges to captive block owners. With increasing pressure on us to meet the demand of the regular consumers, we have requested the (coal) Ministry to scrap the policy,” a company source said.