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Our Bureau

Kolkata , May 27

COASTAL shipments of thermal coal through the Paradip port for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) have been hit by the not-so-satisfactory arrivals of the mineral at the port from the Talcher mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL).

"On an average, we are handling 5-6 rakes a day for the TNEB compared to normal eight rakes," said port sources.

In April, total arrivals were a little less than six lakh tonnes, representing nearly 75 per cent of the linkage of eight lakh tonnes a month.

The situation so far in the current month has been worse; the figure is around four lakh tonnes, or 50 per cent of the linkage, and port sources fear that at best, it may go up to 60 per cent by the month-end.

At this rate, the port is likely to end 2005-06 with a lower throughput than last year's 7.9 million tonnes (for the TNEB alone).

Further, TNEB might be forced to import coal on a regular basis, which will be a disaster for the Paradip port. Some imports have already been made by the TNEB, the sources said.

The port's mechanical coal handling facility, installed at a huge investment and with assistance from the Asian Development Bank, is geared to handle nearly 25 million tonnes of coal annually, or more than two million tonnes a month on an average, for coastal shipments to the Ennore port to meet TNEB's requirements.

As the situation stands now, the facility runs the risk of substantial under-utilisation of capacity.

The port authorities took up the matter with MCL authorities, only to be told that the difficult law and order situation was blocking road transportation of coal from the mines to the Railway sidings.

MCL is currently loading at the rate of 15-16 rakes a day as compared to the normal 22 rakes.

Also, the agitation by the local people on issues such as rehabilitation, jobs has hit rake loading hard.

As it is, during the summer months, the oppressive heat keeps down activities in the mining areas.

Earlier too, coastal shipments of coal through Paradip port had suffered but due to different reasons.

The bulk of the production of Talcher mines was being made available to the new super thermal power plant of NTPC at Kania.

But now, NTPC has decided to import coal, an estimated two million tonnes, through the Visakhapatnam and Paradip ports, at the rate of one million tonnes each, to meet the requirements of the Kania plant.

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