Instead of coal, NTPC unit receives soil in nine wagons

At least nine out of 59 wagons in the rake carried soil, much to the shock of the officials. Horrified over the first-of-its-kind incident, the country’s top thermal power producing company - the NTPC - has sought an impartial probe into the matter. A letter to this effect was shot off to the East Coalfields Limited (ECL) for a joint investigation of the nine wagons stationed at the plant site. The coal was supplied by ECL’s Raniganj (West Bengal) coal pit through Eastern Railway. “The rake first reached Kahalgaon railway station from where it arrived at the NTPC’s plant,” said P K Upadhya, AGM, Operations and Maintenance, NTPC, Kahalgaon.

The 2,340 MW Kahalgaon super thermal power project receives 10 to 15 rakes of coal daily to meet its fuel demand.

“However, we were surprised when informed that in the rake from Raniganj, nine out of 59 wagons were full of soil, instead of coal. The soil wagons were separated before unloading coal from the rest 50 wagons,” the official added.

Normally, a rake takes 10 to 12 hours to reach Kahalgaon, but this particular rake took 25 hours before reaching here,” said a source who did not wish to be identified. “The alarm was first raised by some workers, who, while crossing the railway foot over-bridge, noticed soil in the wagons, as the rake was stationed under the bridge,” he added.
Manager of Kahalgaon station Sameer Singh has informed the chief controller and assistant operating manager, Malda division about the faux pas.

“It could be human error too. But things will be clear only when a proper inquiry is conducted into the incident,” said the source, and added that the NTPC plant, which was already short of coal, could run into further trouble if remedial measures were not taken immediately.