Amid the ongoing protests against the newly introduced Agneepath scheme, state-owned power utility Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) on June 18 said that the cancellation of several trains was affecting the movement of coal to the thermal plant. Is.
Due to cancellation of trains by Indian Railways – citing violence, coal rakes in Punjab have come down from around 20 rakes per day to eight rakes per day.
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Baldev Singh Saran, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, PSPCL said, “Cancellation of various trains due to the ongoing protests is definitely affecting the arrival of coal to the five thermal power plants in the state.”
According to official reports, the stock of coal at Goindwal Thermal Power Plant is almost exhausted, while it is in critical category at Talwandi Sabo Thermal Power Plant, which has less than four days of stock left.
However, the situation at Lehra and Rupnagar plants is slightly better as they have 16 and 17 days of coal left respectively. Also, Rajpura Thermal Plant has sufficient stock of coal for 23 days.
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Prior to the protest, the state’s thermal power plants were already grappling with restricted supply of coal from Coal India Limited and non-availability of adequate rakes by the Railways.
A senior PSPCL official said, “The coal that was coming into the state was enough to sustain the day-to-day operations of the thermal plant and further reduction in coal arrivals could create problems for Punjab.”
Earlier in the day, the Indian Railways informed that it canceled 369 trains, including 210 mail/express and 159 local, on Saturday due to agitation against the Centre’s recently announced Agneepath scheme for recruiting soldiers in the armed forces. Passenger trains are included. In addition, two Mail/Express trains were partially cancelled, taking the total number of trains affected during the day to 371.
With inputs from PTI