Bathinda, September 21
The power crises in Punjab may go from bad to worse as acute shortage of coal has hit two major thermal plants situated in this district.
Official sources said the thermal power plants in Punjab had been hit by the shortage of coal and about 20 thermal power stations across the country had been suffering on that account. The Union Ministries of Power and Coal had been constantly monitoring the performance.
The sources said if coal was not made available within a day or so, these thermal power stations would face closure.
The local Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP) and Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant (GHTP) at Lehra Mohabat, 23 kms from here, have coal left only for five days. As per norms, every thermal power station is required to keep 20 days’ stock of coal.
Earlier three thermal power stations of the state had been faced a shortage of coal as the authorities concerned had not been paying Coal India regularly.
Information revealed that at present, the GNDTP, which had four units of 110 MW each, had been getting 3,000 MT to 3,500 MT of coal daily against its daily consumption of 4,500 MT. Similarly, the GHTP, which had two units of 210 MW each, had been getting 3,000 MT of coal against its daily consumption of 6,000 MT.
The sources said the stock of coal started depleting in these thermal plants a few days ago when its supply from coal mines became erratic.
The GNDTP and GHTP authorities attended a meeting of the linkage committee yesterday in New Delhi and urged the authorities concerned to hike the supply of coal.
Mr P.S. Luthra and Mr Sanjeev Bansal, General Managers, GNDTP and GHTP, respectively, said they had been assured by the authorities concerned that the supply of coal would pick up in two to three days.
