The State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) today said the supply of coal to NTPC’s Dadri power units during January 1-13 period was more than the committed quantity.

“CIL has supplied coal more than ACQ (Annual Contracted Quantity) to Dadri Stations,” Coal India said in a statement.

“The pro-rated commitment for supply had been 2.74 lakh tonnes during the period January 1-13, 2013 against which actual supply has been 2.82 lakh tonnes,” the company said.

There were reports that there was coal shortage at NTPC’s Dadri power plant, leading to power cuts in the national capital.

The four units of NTPC’s Dadri project have a fuel supply agreement with CIL’s arm Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) for 4.4 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

This apart, since NTPC has yet not entered into fuel supply pact with CIL for the new units, the coal supply to fifth and sixth unit of Dadri is being made through Memorandum of Understanding for a quantity of 2.94 MTPA.

“Progressively for the fiscal, April to January 13, coal supply form CCL has been 5.70 MT i.e 103 per cent of the pro-rated commitment of 5.56 MT,” the statement said.

Last week, the government had said there was no shortage of coal supply to NTPC’s Dadri power plant.

As many as 34 power plants in the country had fuel stock for less than a week as on December 30, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data.

As many as eight stations in the northern region, including Delhi, faced severe fuel scarcity mainly on account of inadequate availability of domestic coal, the CEA said.

Meanwhile, the Power Ministry and Coal Ministry are working in tandem to deal with the problem of fuel shortage.

The long pending issue of signing of the Fuel Supply Agreements between power companies and CIL, which may solve the problem of shortage to an extent, would be done soon as has been assured by Power Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia.

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