GEB-SECL tussle over

VADODARA, Dec 06: The vexed issue of `over-supply' of coal by the South Eastern Collieries Limited to the Gujarat Electricity Board's the...

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VADODARA, Dec 06: The vexed issue of `over-supply’ of coal by the South Eastern Collieries Limited to the Gujarat Electricity Board’s thermal stations has been resolved following the intervention of Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who represented the peculiar problem before the Union government some time ago.

About six months ago the GEB faced a glut of coal at the four thermal power stations in the State, following the SECL’s “relentless” supply of coal,“irrespective of our requirements or demands,” Board chairman Nalin Bhatt told Express Newsline on Sunday.

Bhatt said it was due to a forceful representation by the Board, which was later personally followed up by the chief minister, that the situation at the stations was eased. He said on November 1, the stations had a whopping 13.41 lakh tonne of coal stocks worth about Rs 242 crore.

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The SECL and railway authorities, to maintain their own earnings, had been continuously sending coal for the last six months. Following persuasion, the supplies were brought down and now the stations had an adequate stock of 5.96 lakh tonne of coal worth Rs 102 crore, Bhatt said.

Asked if SECL’s unilateral ability to send coal to GEB — thereby imposing a heavy burden that could be passed on to the consumer — did not indicate mismanagement, Bhatt said this would not happen now. No load had been passed on to the consumer, he added.

In another development, Bhatt said joint sampling of coal supplies received at the thermal stations would begin by the end of this month. This would help monitor the quality of coal being supplied to Gujarat, which consumes 35 per cent of coal produced in the country. It may be recalled the Board had a showdown with the SECL over stones being mixed up with coal supplies as well as over the gradation of coal, because sampling was unilaterally done at the collieries.