Once commissioned, the plant will add 1,600 Megawatt to the company's portfolio

Following its move to shift its flagship Gadarwara project from Odisha to Madhya Pradesh, power generator NTPC has crossed a major hurdle by securing the environment ministry’s approval for the Rs 11,640-crore power plant. Once commissioned, the project would add 1,600 Mw to the company’s portfolio.
As the ministry’s environment clearance was on the condition that the project be set up as a role model, NTPC has quickly moved to source equipment and fuel for the project.

NTPC has thrown up two new demands relating to acceptable quality and losses during transport of coal under the new Fuel Supply Agreements

The battle between energy giants Coal India Ltd (CIL) and NTPC Ltd over the issue of fuel supply pacts does not seem to be nearing an end. The latter has put forth two new demands — concerning the acceptable quality of coal and losses during transport — under the new fuel supply agreements (FSAs). Though CIL has trashed these as “absolutely baseless”, the new demands are set to derail the government’s efforts to free huge investments stuck due to coal shortage.

Cyrus Mistry, Anil Ambani and Chanda Kochhar on the 22-member advisory panel

Power sector heavyweights including, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry and ADAG Chairman Anil Ambani, along with top bankers, will meet power minister Jyotiraditya Scindia tomorrow to discuss issues hurting fresh investment running into lakhs of crore in the sector. This will be the first meeting of a 22-member advisory panel for the power sector.

The Union coal ministry has floated a Cabinet note seeking approval of the Cabinet Committee on Investment ( CCI) to free investments worth Rs 1,347 crore stuck in coal mines stuck due to lack of environment clearances.

The coal ministry and the Ministry of Environment and Forests ( MoEF) have jointly identified 12 projects ,which were stuck for want of green clearances and where approvals can be given quickly.

Units with a combined capacity of 16, 000 Mw to be affected

Coal-based power plants with 16,000 Megawatt (Mw) capacity, entailing an investment of more than Rs 80,000 crore, are unlikely to get the benefit of coal price pooling. The coal ministry has said these projects would be kept out of the pooling mechanism, since they came up without any firm long-term linkage from Coal India Ltd (CIL).

Guj CM had written a series of letters to PM since June 2010 seeking additional coal blocks for Guj Mineral Dev Corp

The Centre has turned down Gujarat government requests for coal blocks. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had written a series of letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh since June 2010 seeking additional coal blocks for Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) and allocation of an alternate coal block for the state-run company.

The newly-formed Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) is likely to approve automatic extension of environment clearances when it meets on Thursday, sources said. The move will not only do away with the tedious process of environment and forest clearance, but also free up over 65 million tonne (MT) additional coal annually, according to sources.

Last year, the environment ministry had made it mandatory for companies setting up projects to obtain forest clearance (FC) before applying for environment clearance (EC), where diversion of forest land is required. The guideline was later modified, allowing parallel processing for both EC and FC.

Aims to maximise realisation to meet Rs 30,000-cr target FinMin to meet ministries this week

To maximise realisations from stake sale in two companies in its disinvestment pipeline — Oil India Ltd (OIL) and NTPC — the government has planned to sort out some of the issues before launching offer for sale (OFS). The stake sale in the two companies is critical to meeting the government’s Rs 30,000-crore disinvestment target for the current financial year, as the government has managed to garner only about Rs 6,900 crore so far.

The world's largest coal-based power plant is struggling to survive at the back of pricing problems

On Monday, a high-level inter-ministerial panel will take a call on fuel supply for Adani Power’s Rs 25,000-crore imported coal-based power plant at Mundra in Gujarat. The infrastructure and mining major had asked the government to review an earlier decision to cut off domestic coal supply for the flagship 4,620 megawatt (Mw) project. The world’s largest coal-based power plant is already struggling to survive at the back of pricing problems.

Deadline for accepting the package extended by three months

At least six states have agreed to subscribe to the Centre’s debt restructuring plan for power distribution companies. The deadline for states to opt for the package has been extended by three months and would now end on March 31. The three-month period would be used to accommodate agreements by more states and ensure consensus building among stakeholders. Once accepted by all states, the Rs 1.9-lakh-crore package is expected to bail out financially-stressed distribution companies and usher in long-pending reforms in the power sector.