"CIL has reported that during April-July, 2011, dispatches to NALCO's captive power plant... were 1.828 million tonnes (MT) against the pro-rata Annual Contract Quantity (ACQ) of 1.91 MT," Minister of State for Coal Pratik Prakashbapu Patil said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
"Dispatches to NTPC power stations were 36.622 MT, as against the pro-rata ACQ of 50.126 MT," Patil said.
The Coal Ministry had earlier ruled out any shortfalls in coal supply to power stations.
The minister also said that the coal stock with the power stations increased by 14 per cent to 13 million tonnes (MT) in July this year from 11.5 MT in the same month last year.
"The coal stock with power stations has increased from 11.517 million tonnes at the end of July, 2010, to 13.164 million tonnes at the end of July, 2011," Patil said.
For the current fiscal, the minister said, Coal India Ltd (CIL) has offered to supply 447 MT of coal to power utilities, subject to the availability of wagons from the Railways.
Earlier, the ministry had said CIL -- which accounts for more than 80 per cent of domestic coal production -- has been dispatching coal as per the targets fixed in its annual supply plan.
During the last three years, dispatches to power utilities amounted to 102 per cent, 96 per cent and 91 per cent, respectively, of targets, the Coal Ministry had said.
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SCHOLARSHIP AMOUNTThe scholarship is admissible from the second year of study till the final year subject to the condition that the student meets the minimum qualifying criterion for success in each year. The amount of scholarship is Rs.1500/- P.M. Total 35scholarships will be granted (20 SC, 10 ST and 05 PC).
The power project slated to come up at a remote backward region, Adra at Manpura village in Purulia district of West Bengal, was first announced by Mamata Banerjee at her Railway Budget speech for 2009-10 following which a memorandum of understanding was signed between the two parties in October 2010.
It is not likely to face any delay due to land acquisition as Indian Railways is already in possession of all the land required for it.
“The total land requirement for the project is about 1,000 acre. Land required for the main plant including ash pond is about 970 acre and for colony about 30 acre. As land for the project is already in the possession of the Ministry of Railways, there will be no displacement and hence no issues related to resettlement and rehabilitation,” said the report prepared for environmental clearance for the project.
“Land shall be acquired as per rules of West Bengal state government and suitable compensation/R&R measures shall be provided as per state government norms,” it said.
The JV partners are required to acquire only 155 acres for laying water pipeline.
The public Hearing for the project is scheduled to be held on September 6. The power project would be coal-based for which application for coal linkage to the plant has been submitted to the coal ministry.
"Approximately 7.42 million tonnes of coal per annum would be required for the proposed plant. Maximum of about 900 tonne per hour will be required to operate the proposed plant,” the report available with DNA said.
NTPC, which holds the majority 74% stake in Bharatiya Rail Bijlee, formed the joint venture in 2007 with Indian Railways, having the balance 26%, to generate power exclusively for running the large network of Electric Multiple Unit coaches in the country.
“Indian Railway avails power for traction supply for feeding electrical supply for running trains on electrified routes from distribution companies, power companies and state electricity boards. Its annual consumption of electricity for traction use at present is 13 billion units and average purchase cost is Rs4.46/kWh,” the report said.
Bharatiya Rail Bijlee is currently executing another project of 1000mw capacity at Nabinagar in Bihar at an investment of Rs5,352 crore.
The work on the project, conceived way back in 2002 during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s tenure as the railway minister, had suffered inordinate delays primarily because of the nature of the joint venture.
Following series of meetings, the railways and NTPC agreed upon the specifics including the beneficiaries of the project and equity stake each partner will own. The Railway department has now accepted that out of total power generated, 10% would be earmarked to other users to be identified by NTPC.
