Agnipath protests: Train cancellations impacting coal movement, says PSPCL

The state-owned power utility PSPCL on Saturday said the cancellation of several trains because of the protests against the Centre's Agnipath scheme is impacting movement of coal for thermal plants.

Those privy to the developments said the arrival of coal rakes has gone down from around 20 rakes a day to eight rakes per day.

Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), Baldev Singh Saran, said, "The cancellation of various trains due to the ongoing protests is definitely impacting the arrival of coal at five thermal power plants within the state."

As per an official report, coal stock at the Goindwal thermal power plant is almost finished while it is in critical category at the Talwandi Sabo thermal power plant, which is left with stocks of less than four days.

The situation is a little better at the Lehra and Rupnagar plants, which are left with 16 and 17 days of coal, respectively. The Rajpura thermal plant is having coal stock sufficient for 23 days.

Official sources said the state thermal power plants were already reeling under restricted supply of coal from Coal India Limited and unavailability of enough rakes by Railways.

"The coal which was arriving in the state was barely enough to sustain the day-to-day operations of the thermal plants and any further reduction in coal arrivals can create problems for Punjab," a senior official of the PSPCL said.