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The Government's strategy of hiking imported coal blending at future power projects to tide over domestic shortages could flounder if port capacity and rail infrastructure are not augmented in double quick time.
Private power developers have petitioned the Centre to sort out the infrastructure constraints to enable imported coal to be ferried to project sites in the hinterland.
In a meeting with the Power Ministry top brass on Thursday, representatives of private project developers, including Tata Power, Reliance, Essar, Lanco and Jindal Power, sounded the warning note on the new advisory issued by the Government stipulating design changes in all future projects to enable higher imported coal blending.
Apart from the fuel shortages envisaged in both the gas and coal sectors, issues flagged in the meeting chaired by the Power Secretary, Mr P. Uma Shankar, include changes in the Government's competitive bidding framework, the problems on account of environmental norms and financing impediments.
The Power Ministry meeting comes as a precursor to the Prime Minister's meet on June 7 to sort out the coal imbroglio.
“There are obvious capacity constraints at Indian ports, which is glaringly visible even now, when not more than 10 per cent (imported coal) blending is being done. If the blending ratio now goes up three times, infrastructure needs to be upgraded correspondingly to handle the load,” an executive with one of the private developers said.
In a missive, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) had, earlier this month, asked all power generators, developers and equipment manufacturers to ensure that the boilers for future projects are designed to permit blending of at least 30 per cent imported coal, up from around 10 per cent permissible in the boilers currently used in domestic power stations.
The move is being attempted to stave off a domestic coal shortage crisis. The advisory comes at a time when the country is staring at the prospect of stranded capacity adding up to 42,000 MW by 2016-17, based on projected shortages in domestic coal production.
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