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• Even as the Coal Ministry is still struggling to clear hundreds of pending proposals from captive power plants, State electricity boards and independent power producers (IPPs), seeking dry fuel’s linkages on long term basis, the Power Ministry has sent an updated list of projects belonging to big guns like Tata Power, Adani and GMR Energy to it, requesting supplies for power projects lined up for the 12th Five Year Plan.In a letter to the Coal Ministry, the Ministry of Power has sent a mammoth list of Central and State projects as well as those of IPPs, that have sought coal linkages during the upcoming 12th plan period (2012-17), totalling 129 projects.

• Of these, a lion’s share of projects seeking coal linkages have come from the IPPs, totalling 86 projects and with a combined capacity of 91,100 MW. The request list of IPPs’ projects includes high profile ones like the 1,320 MW capacity Adani Pench Power Ltd’s project in Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh), GMR Energy Ltd’s 1,370 MW project in Raipur, Tata Power’s 1,320 MW project in Cuttack, JSW Energy’s Raigarh project with the capacity of 1,320 MW and Lanco Group’s Babandh power project in Dhenkanal, among others.

• Apart from IPPs, the list also includes linkage requests from 12 Central sector projects with the total capacity of 14,900 MW and 31 State sector projects having a combined capacity of 36,200 MW.The Power Ministry has requested the Coal Ministry to convene a meeting of its Standing Linkage Committee (SLC) Long Term (LT), which takes up these applications for clearance, “at the earliest”, considering the fact that already several requests prior to the fresh list, are lying pending with Sriprakash Jaiswal’s office.

• Power Ministry’s request also holds a lot of significance in light of the fact that several thermal power stations are not able to function to their full capacity due to non availability of coal, as the country’s largest producer Coal India Ltd (CIL) has seen a massive fall in production during the current fiscal owing to heavy rains and delay in environmental clearances.In fact, the situation a few months back, had come to such a pass that the possibility of a fuel and power crisis in the country was averted at the last minute, as CIL took up transportation of the dry fuel to the power plants on a war footing in October and November 2011.

• According to official sources, of around 100-odd applications received in the January-July, 2011, period by the Coal Ministry for linkages, the maximum requests were from captive power plants, followed by state electricity boards and independent power producers, sponge iron and cement plants.Sources further say that around 1,000 proposals from various sectors for coal linkages were pending since 2008, up to July 31, 2011 with the Coal Ministry.

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