Paradip: Union Power Secretary Alok Kumar Monday directed the railways authorities in Paradip to complete various ongoing projects such as electrification in new BOT Bulb and shifting of IFFCO on CONCOR’s MMLP.
According to sources, the railways assured to complete the projects by July 2022.
The Power Secretary along with the Additional Secretary of the Department Vivek Kumar reviewed the stock of domestic/imported thermal coal evacuation systems to tackle possible power shortage.
After taking stock of the situation, the Power Secretary instructed the concerned authorities to address the bottlenecks on priority basis.
He also reviewed the rail connectivity projects like Sambalpur-Talcher doubling work, Quadrupling work of Jharpada-Budhapank and Budhapank-Salegaon, Auto-signaling between Cuttack and Paradip.
Kumar instructed both Railways and Port to prepare a Railway master plan jointly taking into account the traffic potential in the hinterland of the Port.
He also reviewed the pendency of Thermal coal indents via RCR mode with Railways. He instructed all the Gencos to utilise the capacity available at Paradip Port and increase volumes of Thermal coal in this financial year.
Notably, the ongoing peak summer coupled with reviving the Indian economy has resulted in power shortages in several states.
The two Union Government officials were extended a warm welcome by Paradip Port Authority Chairman PL Haranadh.
Alok Kumar inspected the Port infrastructure and the modernization projects and also visited the PEQCTPL Hoper and Mechanised Coal Handling Plant to get first-hand experience of procedures in place and issues involved to augment coal supply through Paradip Port.
The review meeting on coal supply to power plants was attended by PPA Chairman, Deputy Chairman and other officials of Paradip Port, Chief Freight Transportation Manager of East Coast Railway, NTPC Ltd., Chief Manager (Marketing & Sales), Mahanadi Coal Fields Ltd. & Coal India Ltd. and Senior officials from AP Genco, Tamilnadu Genco, and Karnataka Genco participated.
In the course of discussion, PPA Chairman informed that the Port is having capacity to unload 41 nos. of Thermal Coal rakes per day against the present supply of 31 rakes per day and the capacity is likely to be enhanced to 46 rakes per day by July, 2022 and 57 rakes per day by October, 2022.
The representatives from various Gencos requested for supply of more Thermal Coal rakes highlighting their critical stock position.
