Faced with a shortage of coal, which has affected power supply and consumption in the state, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has written to his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao, to increase the daily supply of coal to nine rakes a day from the Singareni coal mines, compared to the existing supply of four rakes a day.
In a press note, the Chief Minister's office said that while they were adequately equipped in general, a series of incidents had led to the shortage for the Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation (APGENCO).
"An accident occurred in Bharathpur mines in Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) area in July, which caused closure of the mine and followed by 15 days strike which adversely affected the coal supplies to APGENCO state thermal stations. Again, in third week of September 2019, there was a strike in MCL mines for 3 days and in the Singareni mines for one day. Our thermal stations are once again adversely affected as a result," the statement said.
"The annual coal linkages with MCL is 17.968 Million Metric Tonnes per annum and with Singareni is 8.88 Million Metric tonnes per annum," it added.
The statement also pointed out that heavy rainfall in the mines during the month of September, had also affected the supplies to thermal stations of the APGENCO.
"APGENCO officials are working in close coordination with officers of MCL, SCCL and railway authorities to improve the coal supplies. The CM of AP requested CM of Telangana to double the coal supply from Singareni to meet the short fall," the CMO statement said.
Jagan Mohan Reddy also wrote to the Union Coal Minister Prahlad Joshi, to arrange for an alternate supply of coal to APGENCO plants to ensure supply under the Fuel Supply Agreement.
Stating that AP Bhavan officials were pursuing the matter in New Delhi, the CMO statement said that all possible action was being taken by APGENCO and the state government to improve power generation and supply.