Of the 92 major power projects reviewed by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for their fuel position, 54 are facing “acute coal shortage”, which is resulting in inadequate power supply/blackouts in various parts of the country, crippling of industrial output and impact on households.

Blame this not only on the stagnation in India’s coal output and a widening demand-supply gap for the fuel, but also on the Centre’s standing linkage committees (SLCs).

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will assist Coal India Ltd (CIL) to develop a pact for supply of imported coal for power generating firms entering into fuel supply agreement with the state-owned firm, a CIL source said.

The appointment of the consultant comes at time when independent directors of CIL and some state governments, including West Bengal, have shown strong opposition to the idea of price pooling of imported and domestic coal. ‘‘PwC has been appointed for providing consultancy services to help the CIL to develop a pact for supplying coal to power companies under fuel supply agreement (FSA),’’ the source said.

If PM Manmohan Singh’s efforts to perk up India’s slowing growth are not quite paying off, the case of a 1,900 MW power plant cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) on Wednesday —12 years after it received all approvals — may provide a part of the answer.

The foundation stone of NTPC’s proposed plant at Chatra in Jharkhand was laid by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1999. But a relentless turf war all but put paid to Rs 250 crore invested by NTPC since 2000.

As many as 10 coal blocks were allotted in the state of Chhattisgarh in last five years but none could start the production.

The steel ministry has called for the auctioning of all unused coking coal mines in the country to steel makers in view of the paucity of the fuel, triggering sharp reactions from Coal India Ltd.

In its revised draft National Steel Policy 2012, the steel ministry has proposed that Bharat Coking Coal Ltd, which is the custodian and operator of coking coal mines, should be de-merged from parent firm CIL and its idle mines should be offered to home-grown integrated steel plants for commercial exploitation, with suitable terms and conditions.

First unit of 500 MW likely to go on stream in December 2013

A consortium of banks has agreed to lend Rs. 937 crore for the 1,000-MW NTPL power project, a joint venture of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation and the Tamil Nadu Power Generation and Distribution Corporation. The project is coming up at Tuticorin. The agreement was signed by NLC Director (Finance) Rakesh Kumar and Bank of India Deputy General Manager (Mumbai) S. Gunasekar on the NLC premises on Monday.

The coal ministry, accepting the demands of the power ministry, has agreed to re-draft the Bill for a regulator for the coal sector by seeking to empower the watchdog to fix prices of coal and including a member from the power sector as a member in the regulatory mechanism.

The Coal Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012 being re-drafted will now be equipped to fix prices of various grades of coal apart from determining the methodologies and policies for finalising prices of both raw and washed coal in line with their calorific values.

The coal ministry, accepting the demands of the power ministry, has agreed to re-draft the Bill for a regulator for the coal sector by seeking to empower the watchdog to fix prices of coal and including a member from the power sector as a member in the regulatory mechanism.

The Coal Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012 being re-drafted will now be equipped to fix prices of various grades of coal apart from determining the methodologies and policies for finalising prices of both raw and washed coal in line with their calorific values.

Faced with stiff opposition from power utilities over the Centre’s move to introduce coal price pooling which could increase price of the fuel by R100 a tonne (5%) or more, the coal ministry may re