The Centre is in talks to permit the companies to divert the supply of coal to the efficient power plants in order to produce more power with available fuel.
A senior government official informed, power ministry is preparing a proposal to allow efficiency based swap between power projects of a group and present before the Union Cabinet for approval.
If ever, the proposal gets approved efficient projects will get more coal and it could produce more power from the existing quantity of coal, he added.
The swapping process is expected to extend to private companies starting with NTPC. With the aim to save costs and railway congestion the government, this February had approved a scheme to swap coal supplies between power plants with the nearest source of fuel.
Due to the scheme implemented by power plants of central and state run utilities Rs 1,100 crore has been saved.
The scheme implemented in three phases, led to a savings of Rs 6,000 crore in transportation costs.
Earlier, the coal ministry has directed Coal India and Singareni Collieries Company to commission first phase with 19 power plants of PSUs like NTPC, Damodar Valley Coporation and Coal India and Singareni Collieries Company.
The second stage consists of swaps between utilities of UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, TN, Maharashtra and Punjab, and power stations of NTPC and DVC, whereas in the third phase, the scheme will be extended to private companies.
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