NEW DELHI: The ministry of railways on Monday said the public transporter is implementing a roadmap, prepared in consultation with the power and coal ministries, for providing coal rakes to power plants located far away from mines to build up fuel stocks.
Responding to a TOI report published Monday on low fuel stocks at distant power stations due to SECR's (south east central railway's) focus on units within the zone in rake allotment, the ministry said many plants in the zone are keeping low stocks as per new norms.
It said the rake supply to such shorter distance plants “naturally” improves because a large number of them are equipped with mechanised unloading systems, especially ‘hopper’ mechanism, which results in a faster turnaround time of three hours.
On closure of one unit of the Amaravati power plant in Maharashtra due to fuel shortage, the ministry said the supplies were lower because the plant was not equipped with a hopper system.
The ministry said many rakes had to be “stabled” after distant power plants regulated coal intake in the April-June period of 2020 to save inventory costs and ran short once power demand picked up. Stocks are being built up now.
