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Power Worries Spark SOS for More Coal

  • Apprehending a power crisis, the Mamata Banerjee government has written to coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal to start allotting coal blocks due to the state, especially the one slated for West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited (WBPDCL).State industries minister Partha Chatterjee said on Thursday that he has written to the coal minister reminding him about the 15 coal blocks allocated for West Bengal. Among the 15, the Left Front government had managed to stake claim on six. Now, the new government is pursuing the case so that the remaining nine are releasedand not held back.
  • But the government's immediate need is to seek the coal block due to WBPDCL at East Dhagaria in Jharkhand. The power-generation company has been failing to meet coal dues for a long time since the Mamata Banerjee government has refused to increase power tariff after the hike in coal prices.Nearly 90 lakh subscribers in West Bengal, barring Kolkata, may face daily power cuts unless the situation improves. With declining generation, official estimates apprehend the average shortfall to be more than 400 MW during the peak of summer.
  • In the absence of subsidy from the government, which is facing the highest revenue gap among all states, WBPDCL has run up a huge outstanding of nearly Rs 600 crore among the three Coal India subsidiaries. The bill should have swelled to Rs 800 crore now, inviting repeated reminders (and even stoppage of delivery) from CIL. As against a minimum requirement of 15-odd rakes (of 3,500 tonnes each), the coal arrivals are now 10 rakes a day.Power minister Manish Gupta, however, blames CIL for arbitrarily raising prices with effect from February 2011. According to him, CIL, being a PSU, should ensure supplies to the state at an affordable price."
  • WBPDCL currently has two coal blocks - Tara mines and Borjor. It has three more allotted - at Pachowara North in Jharkhand and two small ones at Gangaramchowk and Gangaramchow Bhaduria in Birbhum.Fearing to draw frowns from the populist chief minister, the power utilities (in generation or distribution) did not approach the regulator for tariff revision last year and are now incurring a combined cash-loss of nearly Rs 1,000 crore. WBPDCL alone is facing a huge revenue gap for supplying electricity at 25% below cost price.

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