Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Coal

04-December-2012 15:04 IST

The Inter-Ministerial Task Force on coal constituted to review the existing sources and to consider the feasibility of rationalization of these sources submitted its report on 24th August 2011.  The salient  features of the  recommendations of the Task Force are given below:

(i) acceptance of the recommendations of the Functional Directors of Coal India Limited in respect of rationalization of existing sources in respect of applications received from Captive Power Plants, Sponge Iron Plants and Cement Plants.

(ii) rationalization of coal supplies for Sanjay Gandhi and Satpura Thermal Power Plants of  Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company Limited (MPPGCL)

(iii) reduction in quantity allocated to Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) from Korea Rewa fields of C/D grade coal and proportionate increase from Korba fields of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) by swapping quantities of MPPGCL

(iv) rationalization of sources for Panipat and Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Stations of Haryana Power Generation Company Limited, Mejia and Koderma Thermal Power Stations of Damodar Valley Corporation, Santhaldih, Kolaghat, Sagardighi and Bakreshwar Thermal Power Stations of West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited and

(v) reduction in coal allocation from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) and enhancement in coal allocation from Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) for the power plants of Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

The recommendations of the Task Force have not been fully implemented. The recommendations of the Task Force, duly approved by the Competent Authority, were forwarded to Coal India Limited (CIL) on 8th /12th September 2011.  CIL has already implemented the recommendations pertaining to rationalization of sources of consumers of Captive Power Plants, Sponge Iron and Cement sectors. In respect of recommendations relating to rationalization of sources of power utilities, the recommendations are inter-linked and any refusal on the part of any consumer(s) will affect the entire exercise. Since one of the Electricity Boards has raised objections on implementing the recommendations concerning their power utilities, Ministry of Power(MoP)/Central Electricity Authority(CEA) were requested to intervene to get the recommendations implemented fully.  In this connection, a meeting was also held on 15.10.2012 and MoP/CEA have been requested for further action at an early date.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Coal, Shri Pratik Prakashbapu Patil in a written reply in Lok sabha today.

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SAMIR/NCJ/RV

Rationalization of coal sources: recommendations partly implemented; power utility objections require energy authority intervention to proceed. Task Force recommendations approved and forwarded to Coal India Limited; CIL implemented rationalization for captive power, sponge iron and cement consumers, but interlinked reallocations for power utilities remain only partially implemented due to objections by an electricity board. Ministry of Power and Central Electricity Authority were requested to intervene and a meeting was held to seek prompt action to complete the source rationalization and allocation swaps.