Delhi staring at power blackout : Coal shortage 'extremely critical': AAP govt to Centre

New Delhi: The AAP government has written to Union Power Minister R K Singh that Delhi was staring at a power blackout due to the fast depleting coal stockpiles at power plants in the city and has urged him to take up the issue with the Railways which transports coal to the national capital. 

In a letter to Singh, Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain said that thermal generation stations Dadri I & II, Jhajjar and Badarpur had been facing an "acute coal shortage" for many days due to non-availability of transportation rakes. 

"Since June 19, the coal stock is declining continuously and has reached approx. 90,000 MT, which is only one and a half days' requirement. 

"Normally, a stock for at least 15 days’ is required to be maintained by these power plants. The situation, therefore, is extremely critical," Jain wrote in the letter. 

This is the second time that the Delhi government has alleged that the Railways wasn't providing wagons for transportation of coal to these plants which, according to Jain, generate around 2,000 MW of power. 

In May, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to direct the Railways to provide rakes for transporting coal to the power plants in Delhi-NCR, which were facing an "alarming" coal shortage. 

In the letter to the Union power minister, Jain said the weather conditions were not "favourable" and as a result, the peak load was crossing 6,900-MW mark "every now and then". 

"It is, therefore, requested to kindly intervene personally and take up the matter with the Railways for providing rakes/wagons on priority for transportation of coal to these power plants in order to avoid load shedding or any major incident leading to blackouts in Delhi," he said. 

Earlier, Jain had written to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal too to provide wagons to transport coal to power plants in Delhi-NCR.