With a continued power shortfall looming large over West Bengal, the state government today convened a high-level meeting of all concerned parties in an attempt to hammer out a solution.
Apart from the state government, representatives of power generator West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL), Coal India (CIL) and the Railways attended the meeting that concluded with the decision to form a co-ordination committee, sources said.
While, statewide the shortfall was around the 500Mw mark, Kolkata's primary generation and distribution firm, CESC, said that it was still about 200Mw short.
Over the past few weeks, the state has had to face an acute power crunch, leading to extended power cuts across many parts, as generation capacity across a number of plants have plummeted.
A shortage of coal, partly caused due to a problem with railway rakes, have been projected as the primary reason for the present situation.
Consequently, it has emerged out of the meeting that a shortage of about three rakes per day must be sorted out at the earliest. Additionally, a faster turnaround time of rakes has also been solicited thereby, moving the onus away from the Railways and onto CIL, sources said.
The formation of a joint-inspection team to monitor the situation from the loading end has also been mulled as complaints have been made on the quality of fuel being supplied by CIL.
Moreover, the problem of coal pilferage and the coal mafia was also raised at the meeting and the provision of additional security has also been mooted to ensure that prescribed amount of coal reaches the power plants.
It is understood that Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has asked for all power projects in the state to be expedited.
Confirming the presence of Eastern Railways' Chief Operations Manager at the meeting, an Eastern Railways spokesperson maintained that there has been no shortage of rakes. “From our side there is no problem for carrying coal. If they (CIL) want to step up production, we will be able to carry the coal,” the spokesperson added.
Sources said that it was made clear that the situation is unlikely to improve substantially in the next week.
