The National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) has started transporting imported coal to its Farakka power station in West Bengal using the cost-effective inland waterways mode.
Official sources said this method would help the company save nearly 15-20 per cent of the transportation cost through land.
The very first consignment of 69,060 tonnes of coal for Farakka arrived at Sandheads, the transhipment point in the Bay of Bengal, on October 15.
NTPC has entered into a tripartite agreement with the Inland Waterways Authority of India and Jindal ITF, the operator. The latter is tasked with unloading and transporting the dry fuel from the high seas to the plant, it is learnt.
As per the agreement, 3 million tonnes of coal would be moved to the Farakka plant through inland waterways over the next seven years.
Kolkata Port Trust has approved a wharfage charge on coal for the period. Jindal ITF has procured 19 barges of 2,000 tonnes capacity for the job. A conveyor belt moves the coal from the jetty to the stockyard.
After Farakka, NTPC plans to have a similar mechanism for its upcoming power plant at Barh in Bihar, where it is commissioning the first 660 MW unit this fiscal. The entire project, with capacity of 3,300 MW, would require 16 million tonnes of coal a year.
The imported coal would most likely be sourced from Indonesia and the entire process likely to cost Rs 1,200 crore, sources said.
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