A laborer watches while unloading coal from a truck in Rajapur village of Jharia, a remote corner of eastern Jharkhand.
The Coal Ministry on Friday said it has taken a number of measures, including the withdrawal of production from captive coal mines, to augment fuel supply to the power sector. The development assumes importance in view of the country’s power plants facing coal shortage.
“The Ministry of Coal has made all efforts to augment the supply of coal to the power sector and has decided to further augment the supply to the power sector from captive coal blocks,” the Coal Ministry said in a statement.
Captive mines are those that produce coal or minerals for a particular use by the company owning the blocks.
The ministry offered to supply coal to NTPC from NLC India’s Talabira II and III mines in Odisha.
In this regard, the two companies worked together to start supplying coal from Talabira II and III Open Cast Project (OCP) to NTPC (Darlipali and Lara Power Plants).
With timely support from Mines Department, Government of Odisha and necessary coal delivery permits, the delivery of coal to Darlipali Power Station has been started within 24 hours as per the direction of Ministry of Coal.
NLC India Limited, a Navratna Company under the administrative control of Ministry of Coal, is operating the Talabira II and III coal mines in Odisha with an annual capacity of 20 million tonnes.
Talabira II & III OCP has started production from the financial year 2020-21.
State-owned NLC India said this week that it is looking to increase coal production from one of its mines in Odisha to 10 million tonnes per annum this year.
According to regulatory filings, the company aims to increase coal production to 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from next year.
NLC India had said that it has taken steps to achieve the target of six MTPA from its original program of four MTPA during the current year. Keeping in view the high demand for coal, the company is making all out efforts to increase the coal production of Talabira mine to 10 MTPA for the current year and 20 MTPA from next year.
This will not only provide fuel security to the end use plants but also make coal available in the market.
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