Nalco?s worries about coal supply will soon be over. The aluminium major has entered into an arrangement with the Coal India Ltd (CIL) and the Indian railways to augment supply to its fuel-starved captive power plant (CPP) at Angul in Orissa.
?Things are improving now,? Nalco chairman-cum-managing director CR Pradhan told FE. He said, ?Nalco will be supplied three rakes of coal every two days, which is about 4,500 tonne a day, from Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and
Central Coalfields (CCL) in Jharkhand. This apart, the company has also received CIL?s approval for coal linkage with the Jagannath mines in Talcher coalfield, in addition to the existing linkage with Bharatpur mines.?
Nalco is facing the worst ever coal supply problem in the recent times.
The company is not been able to feed its 960-mw captive plant as there is a supply shortage of about 5,000 tonne of coal a day by Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) from the linked mines in Talcher.
The company was expecting a shutdown of the captive power plant units leading to a drop in its aluminium production. Nalco has been allotted a coal block in the Talcher belt with 67 million tonne of proven reserves. According to the programmes of the company, the mines will be developed by December 2008, with an investment of Rs 400 crore.