transfer to new power units The government will come out with a policy to facilitate the transfer of coal linkages from old retiring power plants of pubic sector utilities to new units. The move is likely to reduce the consumption of coal by the power plants amid the country facing fuel shortages.
However, the coal ministry said the issue of scrapping of old units by replacing them with new units of similar or bigger size comes under the purview of Ministry of Power. The matter is also likely to come up for discussion during meeting under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary Coal AK Dubey soon.
Officials from ministries like coal, power, railways and steel may deliberate on the issues like capacity of the plant, quantum of coal linkage, location of the new plant and duration of the replacement of plants. The demand-supply gap of coal was 171 million tonne last fiscal, and may touch 185 million tonne in 2016-17.