Tamil Nadu CM Stalin flags coal shortage issue, seeks PM Modi's 'urgent assistance'

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 22 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Modi seeking "urgent assistance" to direct the Ministry of Coal to ensure the supply of 72,000 MT coal per day as per the FSA (Fuel Supply Agreement) at Paradip and Vishakhapatnam ports to maintain uninterrupted power supply in Tamil Nadu.
Stalin in a letter to Modi said, "I request you to direct the Ministry of Coal to ensure the supply of 72,000 MT coal per day as per the FSA (Fuel Supply Agreement) at Paradip and Visakhapatnam ports. Only this step can enable us to maintain uninterrupted power supply in the state and hence I solicit your personal intervention in this regard."
"The provision of sufficient coal from Talcher mines in Odisha is vital for the units in our state. In this regard, the current daily receipt of coal for Tamil Nadu's units is only 50000 MTs, against the coal requirement of 72000 MTs", added Stalin.
He added that sufficient coal is not getting transported to ports due to short supply of rakes by Railways.
"This, in turn, has resulted in the coal stocks of our State's generation plants reaching critical levels. In the case of TANGEDCO, 22 railway rakes per day are required for moving 72000 MTs of daily allotted coal to Paradip and Vishakhapatnam ports. However, on average, only 14 rakes per day are currently being provided by Railways," he added.
According to Stalin, due to the resultant shortage of domestic coal, TANGEDCO has to resort to importing coal at the current historically high prices, for maintaining an uninterrupted power supply.
"Further, the gap in power generation is also being filled by buying power at high rates in energy exchanges", added the Tamil Nadu CM.