Sambalpur: Ministry of Coal is visibly making an all-around effort to avert the apparent coal crisis or the coal supply shortage that the power plants are facing. While the Coal Minister is on an official inspection visit of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, senior officials of the Coal Ministry inspected coalfields based out of Odisha. Ministry's Deputy Director-General & CCO Santosh on Thursday concluded her three-day visit to Odisha. Santosh, who had arrived on October 12, visited various railway sidings and the first-mile connectivity (FMC) projects of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) in Talcher coalfields and also held meetings with various stakeholders.

She also met with the General Manager (East-Coast Railways), Principal Chief Operating Manager (PCOM) and Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Khorda, and held discussions on improving rake availability at Talcher coalfields, from where MCL had recently been able to despatch 62 rakes in a day.

Appreciating MCL for achieving a record off-take via rail from Talcher coalfields, she said that concerted efforts should be made to ensure dispatch of 60 to 65 rakes from Talcher coalfields to meet the demand for coal.

On Wednesday, MCL despatched more than 5.44 lakh tonnes of coal for the second time this month. The company has supplied over 87.5 million tonne coal to consumers during the current financial year, which is 20.3 percent up as against the same period last fiscal.

At present, MCL has more than 13 million tonnes of coal available in its stocks.

The company has registered a growth of 11.86 percent over last year in coal production and 21.1 percent in overburden (OB) removal, which would further ensure an adequate supply of dry fuel to consumers.

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