CCL confirms availability of over 6 mn tonnes of coal, says 1.85 lakh tonnes per day to be supplied to states with power crisis

Stating that more than 6 million tonnes of coal stacks are available with Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) for generating power, CCL Chairman and Managing Director PM Prasad said on Saturday that they aim to provide 1.85 lakh tonnes of coal each day to the states facing a power crisis.

"Central Coalfields Limited has more than 6 million tonnes of coal stocks, including mines and siding and we have set a target for transporting 1.85 lakhs tonnes per day to the power plants linked in Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar, and Jharkhand," said Prasad.

CCL has seven linked power plants in the North including Punjab and Haryana, National Thermal Power Corporation plants in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Tenughat in Jharkhand etc.

"On an average, a total of 1.85 lakh tonnes of coal were dispatched in the last 29 days. During the last six days (of April), we successfully reached 2 lakh," he added.

Prasad said that they aim to increase the supply to states with power crisis by transporting 2.20 lakh tonnes of coal per day in May.

Adding further, he said, "Coal India, as a whole is currently transporting around 17 lakh and aims at dispatching 50,000 more. This 50,000 involves 20,000 from the CCL as well."

The CCL dispatches coal to 25 directly linked power plants. Apart from this, the dispatched coal is made available to NTPC and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) as per their requirements.

According to Prasad, an Inter-Ministerial Group also monitors the areas with coal shortages daily.

"Collectively, we have a coal stock for one month, but the quantities might vary with some plants," he said while assuring optimism about the improvement of the situation in the next seven to ten days.

Meanwhile, the Director (Op) of the Jharkhand Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited (JBVNL) also gave assurance about the 'under-control' situation in Jharkhand.

"We supplied 100 per cent load to our all grids during the day and almost 100 per cent was supplied at night," said KK Verma, Director, JBVNL.

Speaking about fulfilling the requirements, he asserted that the crisis has been managed regularly, round the clock.

( With inputs from ANI )