Telangana collieries strike hits power supplies in south India

With the daily production of 120,000 tonnes of coal remaining paralysed for the third consecutive day, NTPC will be shutting down its 2,600 MW thermal power station at Ramagundam.

It shut down two units of 700 MW each Wednesday night. With the plant running out of coal stocks, the remaining four units are also likely to be shut Thursday night onwards.
This is also affecting electricity supplies to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Puducherry which receive their share from the NTPC plant. Andhra Pradesh has a 800 MW share from the plant.

As employees in the Singareni mines, spread over four districts in Telangana, continue their strike as part of a "people's strike" for  a separate Telangana state, the Andhra Pradesh Power Generation  Corporation (Apgenco) thermal plants at Kothagudem and Bhoopalapalli face a crisis.

Officials say if the strike continues, it will affect eight other thermal stations in Karnataka, Maharashtra and other states dependent on Singareni coal.

Andhra Pradesh Transmission Corporation (Aptransco) has directed four distribution companies to impose a two to four hour power cut daily.

More than 70,000 employees of state-owned Singareni Collieries are on strike,  paralyzing coal production in all 50 mines spread over Khammam,  Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad districts. According to a company official, the strike is causing a daily revenue loss of Rs.25 crore.

An early end to the strike is not in sight as the management says  that it cannot hold talks with the employees as their demand is  beyond its purview.

Meanwhile, NTPC and Apgenco are trying to make alternate arrangements for coal supplies.