Sharp differences have arisen between the
railways and Coal India Ltd (
CIL) over the piling up of huge coal stocks at the pitheads of mines, which have now touched a staggering 70 million tonnes and need to be quickly moved to power plants.
Coal India claims that lack of adequate railway wagons is holding up the evacuation of coal stocks to power plants. However, senior railway officials are of the view that the problem lies mainly at the Coal India end as there are wide fluctuations in the amount of coal that is loaded from the railway sidings at the mines.
Railway officials point out that the coal has to be first moved from the pithead to the railway siding and then loaded on to the wagons. Both these tasks have to be undertaken by Coal India.
Senior railway officials told Mail Today that as many as 180 rakes of coal were moved out of the Coal India mines during March and the figure for April was 179 rakes. This is considered efficient movement in the Indian context.
However, during some months the loading has been falling to as low as 140 rakes which is considered too slow and leads to accumulation of stocks. During May the figure is expected to be around 160 rakes.
Each rake is made up of 58 wagons and has a capacity of carrying 3,750 tonnes.
According to railway officials, if Coal India keeps evacuating the coal at around 180 rakes a month there is no problem. However, when demand comes down to 140 wagons and then suddenly increases to 200 wagons it is difficult to meet this requirement.
"Coal India needs to be more consistent in its loading," a senior official said.
However, railway officials admit there are problems, such as the frequent Naxal sponsored bandhs in Jharkhand that hold up coal movement from pitheads to railway sidings.
"The railways are entrusted with carrying 48 per cent of the total coal stocks while the rest moves through the merry-go-round dedicated system between power plants and CIL and the road sector. Hence, we cannot be blamed for the accumulation of the entire pithead build-up," a railway official said.
A Coal India official said that all power plants with long-term contracts for coal supply have been provided with adequate stocks.
NTPC officials confirmed that the company's power plants have the required stocks of both Indian and imported coal and it would not have any problem in meeting the peak summer demand.
Courtesy: Mail Today
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