Ranchi,(IANS)| Incessant rains for four days have once again severely affected the production and dispatch in Jharkhand’s coal mines. Due to this, the supply of coal to the power plants of Jharkhand and other states has come down by about 25 percent. After all, the apprehension of its impact on power generation has increased everyone’s concern. Three power plants of Damodar Valley Corporation in Jharkhand are now left with only one to two days’ coal stock, while NTPC’s Barh and Farakka power plants have cut power generation due to non-supply of coal as per demand. . Coal production has been affected since the beginning of October due to rain water logging in the mines. Due to this, when the power crisis deepened during Navratri in the entire country due to less supply of coal to power plants, last week Union Coal Minister Prahlad Joshi himself came to Jharkhand and held a meeting with the officers of coal companies CCL, BCCL and ECL. He visited the coal mines located at Piparwar, Khalari, Dhanbad and took stock of the situation and reprimanded the officials for not taking necessary steps in view of the possibility that the coal production would be affected in the rain.
This was followed by the continuation of round the clock production in coal mines of Jharkhand and supply of coal to power plants across the country. But, due to the cyclone formed around Telangana, incessant rains in Jharkhand since October 16 has once again slowed down the pace of coal production and supply. Dhanbad-based BCCL had set a target of supplying 18 rakes of coal per day to power plants, but only 14 rakes were supplied from here on Monday. Similarly, coal from the mines of CCL and ECL could not be dispatched as per the target.
An official of the DVC Headquarters admitted that only 70 percent of the power of the full generation capacity is being generated in the three power plants of the corporation located in Jharkhand, Koderma, Chandrapura and Bokaro. Due to this, power is not being supplied as per the demand in the eight districts of Jharkhand which come under the command area of DVC. According to information received from Bokaro thermal unit of DVC, there is only one day’s coal stock left. It is being told that if coal is not supplied to the 500 MW power plant in time, then the production of electricity may come to a complete standstill. Only 500 to 600 MW of electricity is being produced from DVC’s KTPS plant with 1000 MW capacity, as against the demand of 11 thousand metric tonnes, only six to seven thousand metric tonnes of coal is being supplied.
Here there is a shortage of coal in the power plant of Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited under the Government of Jharkhand. TVNL Managing Director Anil Sharma said that if adequate supply of coal is not ensured within two to three days, there may be a situation till the production is stopped.