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Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to have a common minister for the power and coal ministries seems to have started showing its impact. Executives from power producers and Coal India Ltd, as well as officials from the two ministries and the Indian Railways met for four hours in New Delhi on Friday to resolve key differences over the quantity and quality of coal supplied to power plants. They have agreed to make coordinated efforts to improve the production and supply of the dry fuel that fire more than half the nation's power capacity, several industry executives who attended the meeting said.

Coal India, the state-run monopoly that has been struggling to meet increasing demand for coal, and power producers have until recently been fighting over the fuel's supply. While the power companies had accused the miner of providing low-quality fuel that also often does not meet the contracted quantity, Coal India had staunchly opposed the allegations and also partly deflected the blame towards the railways saying that pilferage during transportation was a problem. The power and coal ministries, which could not solve the problem because of a lack of cooperation, now have a common minister, Piyush Goyal.

Goyal apparently directed officials from both coal and power ministries to assess the state of affairs in coal production and supply after Gujarat officials complained against Coal India during his visit to Gandhinagar earlier this month, said one of the executives who attended the meeting.

"We are glad that the government acted promptly and Coal India officers at least listened to us unlike before. Improving efficiencies and governance of Coal India will be a major relief for struggling power producers," this executive added.

Close to 150 representatives from the government including the railways, Coal India and its consumers from the private and public sectors attended the meeting on Friday. Power producers demanded better sampling practices to ensure desired quality, introduction of e-billing for efficient payment systems and making the railways responsible for unloading what was loaded at coal mines. Power producers' aggressive demands over quality and sampling-related issues and responses from Coal India representatives led to some heated arguments and the coal ministry's additional secretary AK Dubey and power ministry's joint secretary Jyoti Arora had to intervene often, the executives said. Dubey sought an explanation on differences between domestic and imported coal based on logistics and economics, while Arora suggested to form a joint committee with the railways to resolve problems related to traffic management and adulteration.  The coal ministry is expected to soon make a presentation to the minister on issues discussed at the meeting and possible shortterm solutions.

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