BANGALORE: In an effort to exert pressure on the Centre to provide adequate coal and power from the central grid to tide over the power crisis in Karnataka, a delegation led by Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda will visit Delhi to meet the Union Energy and Coal Ministers.A decision in this regard was taken after an emergency meeting chaired by the CM and attended by Energy Minster Shobha Karandalaje besides a battery of senior energy department officials at the KPCL head office on Saturday.Briefing on the decision, Shobha said presently there was stock of one lakh tons of coal at the Raichur Thermal Power Station, sufficient to run just five units. “We need additional coal to run the remaining three units,” she said, adding that the delegation would urge the Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal to supply an additional 10 lakh tons. The state is facing power shortage due to the stoppage of coal supply from Singareni Collieries because of the ongoing pro-Telangana protests in Andhra Pradesh. The delegation will also meet Union Energy Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde seeking 500 MW unallocated power from the central grid to augment the shortage due to non-functioning of three RTPS units because of coal shortage. The delegation will also meet Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi urging him to send coal supplies through an alternative route from Nagpur.The Telagana agitation hit coal supply as several rail routes in the region have been disrupted. The railways was transporting coal from Nagpur via Telangana to reach Raichur. Karandlaje said Chhattisgarh had started providing 200 MW power and there were steps to purchase power from Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. “So far, we have received only 16 MW from Chattisgarh due to congestion problems in transmission corridors,” she said, adding that steep rates were coming in the way of buying power from Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
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