Govt plans to supply crushed coal to power plants from Jan

“The challenge is not quantity but it seriously quality and that is where I have challenged the top management of Coal India... all coal will be crushed and sent from January 1, 2016. We are committed to that. It will eliminate a lot of quality issues,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said during a 

conference on coal here.

Crushing reduces the overall top-size of the run-of-mine coal so that it can be more easily handled and processed within the captive power plants. Swarup said that all the coal of G 10 grade will be washed and transported after October 1, 2017.

He further said on Friday coal production has become virtually a non issue which was a serious issue a year ago. He further said that as a result of increase in output of fossil fuel the average balance of coal available at the power plants is around 20 days which was between three and five days earlier.

Coal India CMD S Bhattacharaya had earlier stressed upon the need for suppling quality coal and said that it is as essential as providing the requisite quantity. “The pressing need of the hour for us is to be more consumer centric. This is not a choice but an imperative... So, supplying quality coal is an essential ingredient in our business chain and we should be proactive in this endeavour,” Bhattacharaya had earlier said in a letter to his employees.

Meanwhile, shares of state-run NTPC went up by nearly 4 per cent at close today after the company posted around 40 per cent increase in net profit for the second quarter ended September. The bluechip stock ended with a gain of 3.83 per cent at Rs 132.70 on BSE. During the day, it surged 7.62 per cent to Rs 137.55. At NSE, shares of the company climbed 3.79 per cent to close at Rs 132.80. The company’s market valuation advanced by Rs 4,040.31 crore to Rs 1,09,417.31 crore. The stock was the top gainer on Sensex and Nifty indices. On the volume front, 8.55 lakh shares of the company changed hands at BSE and over 91 lakh shares were traded at NSE during the day. 

NTPC on Thursday posted around 40 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 2,898.28 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, on account of higher power generation.

“The company has posted a net profit of Rs 2,898.28 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2015 as compared to Rs 2,071.63 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2014,” NTPC Ltd had said in a BSE filing. According to the statement, the total income increased to Rs 18,173.9 crore in the second quarter of 2015-16 fiscal from Rs 17,267.32 crore in the same period of 2014-15.

NTPC further said that the revenue from power generation increased to Rs 17,950.28 crore as compared to Rs 16,805.73 crore in the year-ago period.