Punjab: Finally, coal rakes start reaching power plants

PATIALA: After facing a severe shortage of coal stock the three private and two government-run thermal power plants in Punjab are ready to receive 84 coal rakes that were held up at different stations following the rail-traffic blockade by the farmers.
PSPCL’s seven rakes, 15 coal rakes of GVK power plant, 22 rakes of NPL Rajpura power plant and 40 rakes of TSPL Banawali power plant were held up.On Thursday evening, one rake had reached Rajpura plant.
“There is around 4,000 metric tonne (MT) of coal in one rake,” said GVK spokesperson. He said 15 rakes would soon reach the power plant that had to shut down both its electricity generation units on October 12 running out of coal.
“We are getting seven rakes of coal in a day or two. We will have to order some more rakes for the stock. Each coal rake costs around Rs 2 crore,” said PSPCL director (generation). He said private power plants in the state would also start getting their rakes from Thursday.
The PSPCL has started a unit each in two government-run power plants that are left with four to five days of coal stock. The PSPCL employees had already submitted their ‘work to rule’ notice to the PSPCL management maintaining that the employees would work from 9am to 5pm only. The government-run units were started after the two private power plants, including TSPL and GVK finished their coal stocks.
According to the railways, 26 of the 30 spots in the Ferozepur division were vacated by the farmers by Thursday evening and they have already moved 12 goods trains carrying food grains. Ferozepur DRM Rajesh Aggarwal said, “After the tracks were cleared, 12 (food grain) loaded goods trains have already been moved, while more such trains have been confirmed for the inward supply of fertilisers, tractors, coal and containers.”
Aggarwal said the railways is running a thorough track clearance exercise in the division and once it is complete, the goods trains would be running at a higher speed than now.
Meanwhile, a flurry of activities was witnessed at all the major railway stations in the division, including Ludhiana, from where a few goods trains passed on its way to Jalandhar and Jammu, while empty trains on the Amritsar-Ludhiana section also went towards Ambala and some other destinations via Ludhiana.
Ambala division divisional railway manager G M Singh said there were 50 empty and loaded rakes in the division station. A tractor consignment of a private company left for Chandigarh railway station on Wednesday night, after the farmers allowed to the goods train to ply. There are around 65 goods rakes which need to be unloaded, he added. Besides, there are 22 rakes of Nabha thermal plant and containers which need to be sent. He said the Punjab government has sent a communication that the railway can start sending goods trains on lines from Kharar, Lalru, Morinda and Bathinda.
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Parcel trains to be short-terminated
The railways has decided to continue with the short-termination of four parcel special trains –
* 00901 Bandra Terminus-Jammu Tawi commencing journey on Oct 23 will be short-terminated at Ambala, and therefore, 00902 Jammu Tawi-Bandra Terminus train will short-originate from Ambala on Oct 25.
* 00463 Howrah-Amritsar parcel train starting journey on Oct 24 will be short-terminated at Delhi and 00464 Amritsar-Howrah train will short-originate on Oct 23 from Delhi.
* 00467 Howrah-Amritsar parcel train starting journey on Oct 22 will be short-terminated at New Delhi and 00464 Amritsar-Howrah train will short-originate on Oct 26 from New Delhi.
* 00763 Hyderabad-Amritsar parcel train leaving on Oct 23 will be short-terminated at New Delhi and 00764 Amritsar-Hyderabad train will short-originate on Oct 26 from New Delhi.
(With inputs from Mohit Behl in Ludhiana and Arti Kapur in Chandigarh)