The coal situation in thermal power stations of the country has not got better in the last one month as there are still five such plants that exhaust their fuel reserves every day. Even Though many part of the country faces severe power crisis, central Government has not made any initiative to make sufficient coal supply to public sector owned thermal power plants. A thermal power station should have sufficient coal for 15 to 30 days, depending upon its installed capacity.

The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data indicate that thermal power plants at Bandel and Farakka in West Bengal, Yamuna Nagar in Haryana, Sipat in Chhattisgarh, and Kahalgaon in Bihar are left with no coal reserves at the end of each day.
The situation was the same about a month ago, on December 15, when CEA data had revealed that five plants -- Harduaganj, Panki and Parichha in Uttar Pradesh, Farakka in West Bengal and Yamuna Nagar in Haryana - were facing the same situation.

However, the report indicates improvement if comparison is made between thermal power stations with coal reserves for less than four days and less than seven days.

There were 40 power stations having less than seven days' fuel stock on Thursday, compared to 45 a month ago. The number of power plants with coal stocks for less than four days is 26 on Thursday, as against 35 on December 15.

CEA data reveals that 12 thermal power station were having coal reserves for a day about a month ago, whereas at present the number of such plants have considerably come down to eight.

Source - Hindu