Amit Shah meets power and coal ministers, reviews situation

New Delhi, Oct 11 (IANS) Amid reports of shortage of coal supplies, Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday met Union Power Minister R.K. Singh and Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi to review the situation.
In the meeting, senior officials of ministries and NTPC were also present. Sources said that the meeting lasted for an hour and Shah reviewed the situation and asked everyone present in the meeting to ensure adequate supplies of coal to thermal power plants across the country.
The coal ministry reassured that ample coal is available in the country to meet the demand of power plants.
“Any fear of disruption in power supply is entirely misplaced. The coal stock at the power plant end is about 72 lakh tonnes, sufficient for 4 days requirement, and that the Coal India Limited (CIL) end is more than 400 lakh tonnes, which is being supplied to the power plants,” in a statement the coal ministry had said Sunday.
on Sunday, union power minister Singh also reviewed the coal stock position in all thermal power plants including those plants which are supplying power to distribution companies of Delhi.
“Yesterday on October 9, the total despatch of coal from all sources (Coal India Limited, Singareni Collieries Company, Captive Coal Mines and imported coal) was 1.92 million tonnes while the total consumption was 1.87 million tonnes. Thus, the coal despatch has exceeded the consumption, thereby indicating a shift to gradual building up of coal stock,” the power ministry had said in a statement.
The power ministry had further stated that the coal ministry and Coal India have assured that there is ample coal available in the country to meet the demand of power plants.
“Any fear of disruption in power supply is entirely misplaced. The coal stock at power plant is sufficient for more than 4 days’ requirement and as the coal supply is being ramped up by CIL, the coal stock at power plant would gradually improve,” the power ministry had added.
Last week, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned about a possible power crisis due to short supplies of coal to plants.