Having battled a shortage, the Madhya Pradesh government has now decided to import coal to do away with the scarcity of fuel at thermal power plants in the state.
Sensing potential power trouble, the state government has floated a tender worth Rs 700 crore for sourcing coal stocks. For the thermal power plants of the state, the government is planning to buy 7.5 lakh metric tonnes of coal. The formalities have been completed at the state government level, said official sources.
According to the tender conditions, the NTPC will be buying coal for the state government which has allowed the agency to source supplies from any country. Government sources claimed that the NTPC could be sourcing supplies from either Australia or Malaysia. The supplier will be responsible for sending coal stocks to the power plants.
Pradhuman Singh Tomar, the Energy Minister of the state told News18 that all efforts have been made to ensure the availability of coal stocks, and around 30 lakh metric tonnes of coal are being brought to the state from the road route. Besides, attempts are made to source supplies from other countries and tenders have been floated for the same.
The minister affirmed that the state will be brought out of this power shortage shortly. The official sources of the Dept of Energy said that three out of four power plants are in a critical situation. The Sanjay Gandhi Thermal Plant with an installed power generation capacity of 1340 MW is running on 56% load generation presently.
The plant load factor is a meager 29.6% for the Satpura power plant which has an installed power generation capacity of 1310 MW. Singaji plant which has an installed capacity of 2520 MW is running on a 42% plant load factor.
Opposition Congress too has intensified heat over the BJP government over the persisting power crisis. Former energy minister Priyavrat Singh said that BJP rules the Center and the state, still, instead of asking coal mines to supply coal, the state government is buying coal from foreign countries. Slamming the old claims of the Shivraj government of MP being a power surplus state, Singh demanded a white paper on the power shortage situation in the country.
(Inputs Anurag Shrivastava)
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