By Our Correspondent
TALCHER/PARADIP/BHUBANESWAR: Union Coal and Mines Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi on Thursday visited the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL)’s Hingula area and reviewed various activities and projects of both the entities respectively.
Beginning the day of his Odisha visit today, the union minister inspected the coal loading system at Paradip Port along with Minister of State for Coal and Mines Shri Raosaheb Patil Danve. Shri Joshi directed the officials to fully utilise the port facilities to increase coal transportation through the sea route and asked officials to explore possibilities of using Paradip port as a coal hub.
Shri Joshi also visited the site of Rail Receival System near Paradip port wherein coal is unloaded with the help of wagon-tipplers. The minister said that this system of unloading is efficient, helps in saving time and demurrage charges, while also reducing the spread of coal dust.
Later the coal minister visited Balram opencast project site in Hingula area of MCL. “With an annual capacity of 8 MT, this mine is operated by an all-women crew for mine blasting work, the minister said. He also interacted with officials and motivated on-ground workers for increasing coal production and dispatch.
Shri Joshi has laid the foundation stone of Shramik Gaurav Jal Udyan near Balram opencast project. “Established beside the beautiful lake which is built over reclaimed land of a coal mine, this site has potential to be developed as a major tourist spot,” stated the minister.
He has also visited Railway Siding in MCL’s Hingula Area. The minister emphasized on reducing wagon turn-around time. He held discussions with Railway officials present on the siding regarding maximizing coal dispatch. The Minister felicitated payloader operators at the Railway Siding, appreciated their hard work and encouraged them to increase coal loading.
Coal supply to power plants has indicated steady increase for the last many days. As per Central Electricity Authority (CEA) report the coal stock with power plants stood at 9.028 Million Tonnes (MT) as on 26th October,2021. With daily increase in coal stock for the last nine days, 5 days’ stock is available at the end of the Thermal Power Plants. (TPPs) In around a week’s time it is likely to reach 6 days’ buffer stock. Coal consumed on daily basis by the TPPs is replenished by coal companies.
Coal supplies to TPPs have been increasing consistently which is evident from the rise in stock at the Power Plant end which has started rising and average increase during last one week is more than two lakh tonne per day.
Earlier this month, Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Shri Pralhad Joshi held a virtual meeting with Minister of Power, Shri R.K Singh and Minister of Railways, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw along with senior officers of the respective ministries, CMDs and officials of the coal companies to discuss and review the steps necessary to further improve coal stock at the power plants end. It was agreed in the meeting that supply to power plants shall be around two million tons per day from all the sources i.e Coal India Ltd., Singareni Collieries Ltd and captive mines. The overall coal supply to Power has been consistently more than 2.1 MT for the last one week.
