As part of its initiative to boost connectivity, the Railway Ministry plans to spend about Rs 4,000 crore to upgrade rail connectivity to coal mines. The investment, once materialised, would boost fuel supplies to power projects.

As part of its initiative to boost railway connectivity, the railway ministry plans to spend about Rs 4,000 crore to upgrade rail connectivity to coal mines. The investment, once materialises, would boost fuel supplies to power projects. Many power projects are suffering insufficient coal supply because of lack of rail conn

Lack of institutional capacity for developing coal blocks, limited availability of sound contract miners, and procedural challenges faced by the captive coal block owners are major issues haunting the coal mining in India. Dealing with these challenges is important for improving sector supplies, rather than privatisation, writes Dilip Kumar Jena.

The implementation of reforms at the state power utility (SPU) level as well as of those initiated to mitigate fuel shortages remains key to power sector turnaround, says KVB Reddy, Executive Director, Essar Power, in an interview with Sumantra Das.

A strong domestic coal production and delivery system is important to achieve energy sufficiency and long-term energy security. Also, an independent coal regulator is required to create confidence of private investors, writes A Shivkamal.India is the seventh largest country in the world with a total land area of over 3,287,260 sq km and with a growing population of 1.22 billion that has put severe strain on the Indian infrastructure.

Union coal ministry justified the allocation of coal blocks to private captive coal miners on grounds that Coal India and other public sector agencies could not meet the demands from private power generators. Therefore, the government had no alternative but to allot captive coal blocks "if it wanted to ensure spee

A comprehensive solar policy is going to be framed in in Odisha, the State government has decided to this extent to promote solar power generation in a big way. The State Department of Science & Technology, which is finalising the policy has targeted solar power production of 80 mw in three years.

A Central Electricity Authority review has said that India suffered a power generation loss of over 11.46 per cent, in 2011-12, on account of fuel shortage, transmission bottlenecks and an equipment pro­blem. All India electricity generation in the country during 2011-12 has been at 876.89 bu. The increased for­ced outages were due to inc­reased forced shutdown of units due to coal supply problem and transmission constr­aints and equipment problems of some new units, the CEA report said.

In an ambitious project, an engineering landmark takes shape 140 m under the Niagara Falls in Canada. When finished, the project will increase output by about 1.6 billion kWh, enough to supply renewable energy to 160,000 homes.