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Till 2005, Eastern Railway (ER) hardly loaded any coal in Pakur collieries, under Eastern Coalfields Ltd. The reason: NTPC’s plants at Farakka and Kahalgaon, which used Pakur coal, had their own merry-go-round systems for coal transportation. The situation started changing dramatically from 2006.

Today, ER loads, on an average, 10 to 12 rakes of Pakur coal everyday as the collieries linked to merry-go-round systems, due to variety of problems, are unable to meet burgeoning demand for coal of the plants, forcing NTPC to approach ER for a bailout. ER, therefore, now loads coal in other collieries for transportation to Farakka and Kahalgaon to cover the shortfall in merry-go-round movement.

However, there is a more important factor. New joint venture companies have been given leasing rights and linkages of Pakur coal, so much so that Punjab Emta, a joint venture between Punjab State Electricity Board and Emta, a private firm, is currently loading about five rakes a day for power plants located in Punjab. Reports have it that there are proposals for more linkages to meet the requirements of private sector power plants and ER’s coal loading at Pakur might rise to an estimated 20 MT annually in the next few years.

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