Title - Govt nod to coal-linkage to Railway power plant

After keeping the matter hanging for almost a year, the Centre has finally given the green signal for coal-linkage to the Railways biggest power project, the 1320 MW thermal power plant in West Bengal — a pet project of Trianmool Congress chief and bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.Union Coal Minister Shriprakash Jaiswal and Railway Minister Mukul Roy had a meeting earlier this week and finalised the long-pending commitment, without which, the ambitious project had been left stuck for a year.“We will send a letter of commitment to the Railways in a week and the supply will start as and when they require,” Jaiswal told The Indian Express.Roy has sought around 6.8 million tonnes per annum of coal on an urgent basis. As per the project documents, the plant requires around 92 tonnes of coal per hour for continuous generation in two units of 660 megawatts each.Focused on completing projects promised by Mamata as Railway Minister, Roy had also written to Jaiswal in May but the it did not yield anything back then.The approval to the coal linkage now, finally, is being viewed in the context of renewed friendship between the Trinamool Congress and the Congress after the Presidential poll in which Trinamool Congress supported UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee.The plant, situated in Adra, West Bengal, is being built in a joint venture with the state-owned power major NTPC.

Once complete, the plant is expected to help Railways take a quantum leap in self-reliance in terms of its power needs to run trains.