Thaindian News

Bhopal, Oct 21 (IANS) The Madhya Pradesh government has given a green signal to the state electricity board to import coal from other countries for meeting the increasing demand of power in the state.
“The state government has approved coal import and it would be bought through open global tenders,” Madhya Pradesh Power Transmission Company Ltd (MPPTCL) Chairman and Managing Director R.K. Verma told IANS.

Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company Ltd (MPGENCO) Chairman and Managing Director R.B. Agrawal said: “We will float open tenders for importing coal after technically examining the possibilities.”

He said the company would purchase coal from the supplier selected through the open tendering system.

“The daily coal consumption of thermal power generation stations of the state was around 40,000 tonnes but we have not been getting enough coal from Western Coalfields (WCL) and South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) and thus we are going to import this fuel to make up the shortfall,” he added.

The central government and the state had been at loggerheads over the supply of coal and the latter was accusing the former of deliberately not supplying adequate coal for power generation in the state’s thermal power plants.

The state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had earlier been sceptical of the central government’s suggestion to import coal saying that it will be quite expensive as Madhya Pradesh was not situated near a sea port.

However, after failing to convince the central government to augment coal allotment, the state government decided to allow MPGENCO to import coal and conveyed the same to company officials at a power review meeting recently, an official said.

“MPGENCO, which has been willing to import coal to meet the shortfall for nearly a year, is currently technically examining the feasibility of importing coal and would soon float open global tenders to import 4.5 lakh tonnes of coal,” he said.