Chandigarh, April 20
A coal scam has allegedly surfaced in the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB). Informed sources said today that the imported Chinese coal being supplied to the various thermal plants of the PSEB was of substandard quality.

Its quality is far inferior from what was agreed upon in the purchase order signed by the PSEB authorities with private suppliers of coal.

The PSEB authorities had issued a purchase order in November to private parties. One party was to supply 4.42 lakh tonne imported coal worth Rs 220 crore at Ropar Thermal Plant. Other was to supply 2.72 lakh tonnes worth Rs 130 crore to Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant. The coal was to come from the Datong mines in China. It lands at a port in Gujarat from where it is transported to two thermal plants in Punjab.

Sources said the coal was to meet certain standards specified in the purchase order. Two arrangements were made to check whether the coal supplied conformed to standards. At coal loading port in China, an independent international testing agency approved by the board was engaged to test the quality of the coal.

And for its counter-checking, analysis of quality of coal was to be made on its arrival at thermal sites by the PSEB labs located at thermal plants. In case, the quality of coal was found substandard, the coal should have been rejected and payment stopped.

Sources said when the coal was loaded at port in China, the results of the quality analysed by the independent agency were as per the purchase order. However, when the coal arrived at thermal sites and checked at labs, coal size, inherent moisture, ash temperature and hardness was found at a huge variations from the standard fixed in the purchase order.

As per the purchase order, the size of the 70 per cent coal should have been between 20 and 50 mm. However, only 20 to 40 per cent coal was found to be of 20 to 50 mm size. And 20 per cent of the coal should have been of 2 to 20 mm size.However, its ratio was found 40 to 50 per cent. The ratio of less than 2 mm coal, which should have been less than 10 per cent, was found 15 to 35 per cent, sources added.

The inherent moisture in the coal should have been 2 to 5 per cent. However, it was found 3 to 8 per cent. And ash temperature, as per the purchase order , should have been above 1,350º C, however, it was found only 1010 to 1050 ºC.

Why the coal loaded at the port in China as per fixed standards became substandard when it reaches at plant sites? Is the coal supplied to the PSEB's thermal plant after adulteration or the coal imported from China itself is not as per the standards? These are the questions disturbing official quarters in the PSEB. Obviously, the supply of substandard is causing huge financial loss to the PSEB.

Sources said when the irregularities in supply of coal was pointed out by certain officials, they were allegedly told to keep quiet. No quality cut has been imposed so far, sources added.