‘Transporting coal through rail-ship-rail route illogical’

Tribune News Service

Patiala, December 21

The Ministry of Power has asked Punjab to start lifting coal from Mahanadi and Talcher coalfields in Orissa through rail-ship-rail (RSR) formula from January 2023.

Reacting to it, Padamjit Singh, chief patron of the All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF), in a letter to Union Power Minister RK Singh, has said the Power Ministry has absolutely no logic to put an additional burden of transporting coal through an RSR route having prohibitive cost. Punjab should be allowed to transport coal by rail route only, he said.

Punjab is reluctant to use the conventional mode to run the plant because of high transportation cost as well as the long transit time of 25 days it will take in the new mode. VK Gupta, AIPEF spokesperson

Talwandi Sabo Power Limited in Punjab has coal linkage of 67.20 lakh MT with Mahanadi and Talcher and as per the advisory, 15 to 20 per cent of the total annual requirements of about 12 to 13 lakh MT is to be routed through RSR mode.

AIPEF spokesperson VK Gupta said the present practice at the Talwandi Sabo thermal plant was that coal is moved from the mine to the thermal station by rail. The freight distance by rail is 1,900 km, but in the RSR mode, the coal would be transported 1,700-1,800 km by rail in addition to sea travel of 4,360 km.

“Further, due to multiple transportation and handling of coal through the RSR mode, the transit loss will increase from 0.8 per cent to 1.4 per cent. The quality of coal will also deteriorate due to multiple trans-shipments. The total transportation time under the new mode will be around 25 days against 4 to 5 days through rail routes.

Punjab is reluctant to use the conventional mode to run the plant because of high transportation cost as well as the long transit time of around 25 days it will take in the new mode,” Gupta said.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has urged Union Power Minister to allow 100 per cent supply of coal to Punjab through direct rail mode instead of the rail-ship-rail mode.

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