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Rajasthan power stations face coal shortage

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Tuesday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention to resolve the crisis caused by the shortage of coal supply to the Suratgarh and Kota super thermal power stations, while pointing out that the two projects had meagre coal reserves that would last only four or five days.

In a letter addressed to Dr. Singh, Ms. Raje said though the State Government was in constant touch with the South-Eastern Coalfields Limited and the Railway Ministry and had asked them to restore coal supply, the situation had not improved.

Ms. Raje requested the Prime Minister to instruct the Ministries concerned to ensure adequate coal supply to the two power stations which she said had been facing the scarcity of fuel for the past two months.

The Chief Minister pointed out that the Union Power Ministry had included Suratgarh and Kota in the list of power stations that had an inadequate stockpile of coal as the fuel. However, she took exception to the Centre’s instructions to the two power projects to procure coal by import.

Ms. Raje said the two power stations had been included in the list of 16 projects which were required to import coal to meet their fuel needs, despite protest by the State Government.

“Coal import should be the last option for these power stations as they are situated very far from the sea-shore.”

It was not feasible for a landlocked State like Rajasthan to import costly coal and bear its exorbitant transportation costs, said Ms. Raje and added that the stipulation of import should be applied only to the power stations situated near the coastal areas.

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