Mechanism for third party sampling of CIL coal put in place

The mechanism for third party sampling of the quality of coal from state-owned CIL has been put in place, according to an official.

"The mechanism for third party sampling of coal has been put in place from October 1," the official said, adding:"Three companies (international) have been shortlisted for the task."

However, he refused to name the companies that have been shortlisted.

The government had said earlier that the mechanism would be in place by August 31.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) and NTPC had earlier locked horns over the quality of coal that was being supplied to the power plants.

According to an official statement, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had then directed that third party sampling should be in place by August 31, 2013.

The directions to CIL and its subsidiaries were made during the review meeting of the coal major held in August under the Chairmanship of the Coal Minister.

Nine bidders had submitted tenders for the technical bids for third party sampling which opened on May 10, it had said.

Power producer NTPC had refused to sign fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with CIL stating that it was supplying inferior quality coal.

CIL then modified its FSA to allow a third party to collect samples and determine the quality of dry fuel.

It replaces a system of sampling and analysis that was to be conducted jointly by the buyer and the seller of coal.

"Samples of coal shall be collected by third party by manual method during each of the shifts and at each of the delivery points for determining the quality of coal," the state-owned company had said.

Third party is an agency that will collect, prepare and analyse coal samples at loading points. Samples of coal will be collected in the presence of representatives of the seller (Coal India) and the purchaser, CIL had said.