Officials of Delhi's Power Ministry, BSES, and Tata Power met with Union Power Minister RK Singh on Sunday, 10 October, to discuss the ongoing coal shortage in the country.
This comes a day after the Delhi government warned that the capital has only a day's coal stock left to supply power while also hinting at the possibility of a blackout.
Speaking to reporters, Power Minister Satyendra Jain said, "The coal-fired power plants that supply electricity to Delhi have to keep a minimum coal stock of one month, but now it has come down to one day."
"After two days there will be a complete blackout in Delhi if we don't get more power supply from the Centre."Satyendra Jain, Delhi Power Minister
"Our request to the centre is that railway wagons should be arranged and coal should be transported to the plants soonest. All the plants are already running in only 55 per cent capacity," the minister in Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government said.
Mr Jain alleged the coal crisis appears to be "man-made, just as the crisis of medical oxygen supply during the COVID-19 second wave."
"There is politics going on. If you create a crisis, it will seem that some great work has been done by solving it," he said.
Amid the coal shortage in the country, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, seeking his intervention in making adequate arrangements in the national capital as the power generation from the major central generating plants has been affected.
Kejriwal in a tweet said that, "Delhi could face a power crisis. I am personally keeping a close watch over the situation. We are trying our best to avoid it. In the meanwhile, I wrote a letter to Hon’ble PM seeking his personal intervention."
In his letter, CM Kejriwal suggested that "adequate coal be diverted from other plants like Dadri and Jhajjar" to be supplied to Delhi. He also requested gas allocations to Bawana, Pragati -I and GTPS plants supplying power to the city.
This move came hours after the Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited CEO Ganesh Srinivasan announced that , "Delhi might have intermittent rotational load shedding in coming days as coal shortage across the country has led to reduced power generation."
Other states like Odisha have also sought intervention as the state's industries are dealing with a severe coal shortage.
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