Coal issues dog Essar's Jharkhand project

Half completed, plant awaits fuel linkage

Essar Power’s Tori project in Jharkhand is stuck for lack of coal, despite a spurt in the fuel’s supplies in the country.

“The 1,200 Mw project is almost 50 per cent complete. It would have been completed by now but financial institutions have stopped disbursement of funds,” said K V B Reddy, chief executive officer, Essar Power.

Banks check for power purchase agreements (PPAs) and fuel supply before lending to power generation projects. “If the coal blocks had been with us, the plant would have been operational,” Reddy said.

Essar Power had two coal blocks, at Chakala and Ashok Karkata