People of Vidarbha have been protesting the large number of power plants planned here in last five to six years in vain. Now, coal ministry has inadvertently come to their aid by proposing not to provide coal linkages to any new plants and units for some time. The state government has already sanctioned 132 power plants in 11 districts of Vidarbha. Most companies have already acquired land or are doing so even though they don't have an assured coal linkage.
The ministry, in a note to be put up before the cabinet, has stated that till last December, 1,059 power units and 555 cement and sponge iron units had applied for letter of assurance (LoA) from subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd (CIL). The total requirement of these plants is about 3,200 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), which was beyond CIL's capacity. More companies had applied for LoA after December.
The note stated that CIL subsidiaries had signed 176 LoAs to cater to capacity addition of over one lakh MW. Of this, 80,000 MW was yet to be added and coal supply to these units had not begun. Even now, coal companies were unable to supply contracted quantity of coal.
The ministry has hence proposed that it should stop receiving application for coal linkages and a public notice should be published to this effect. It should also be uploaded on ministry's website. The ministry stressed that a policy decision whether the applications received in last six months should be considered or not needed to be taken.
Sources in Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) told TOI that coal companies were finding it difficult to supply coal for units for which LoAs had been signed. “We have sufficient geological reserves but extracting them is becoming more and more difficult due to strong resistance from project oustees. They demand compensation at market rates for which we don't have any provision,” said a WCL official.
Paliwal said when power companies were asked about coal linkages, they said if necessary the plant would operate on imported coal. “They ignore the fact that price of imported coal is far higher. Adani's UMPP at Mundra is facing lot of trouble due to increase in international coal prices,” he added.
– Sourced
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