NTPC places order worth Rs 10k crore with Indian Railways: Report

NTPC has awarded a contract of Rs. 10,000 crore to the Indian Railways. The scope of work involves transporting coal from mines to all NTPC’s plants through the fiscal year 2020.
The order is a respite for the cash-starved Indian Railways as India’s largest energy conglomerate has agreed to fork over the entire amount in advance in three instalments. In return, the Indian Railways are offering NTPC some benefits by way of fixed prices for the...
remaining fiscal year as well as the next fiscal. Also the Maharatna PSU will receive a preferential allotment of rakes.
This secures NTPC’s interests on three chief fronts – the contract will reduce NTPC’s cost of transportation of coal, lessen transportation time and render it immunity from any upcoming revision in rail tariffs.
NTPC has already initiated an advance freight payment of Rs. 2,000 crore. The remaining instalments will be paid during the current fiscal.
In a related development, Coal India has offered an additional five million tonne of coal to NTPC with tweaked terms in a bid to reduce pithead stock.
Coal India officials said that the company has offered five million tonne of coal to NTPC which is required to be lifted via road to reduce import.
Coal from CIL is normally transported by rakes as per Fuel Supply Agreement.
The coal ministry had pulled up Coal India and had desired that the miner dilutes it pithead stock by 10 million tonne from about 21 million tonne as on September to push supplies in the festive season.
NTPC, a Maharatna PSU under the administrative control of Ministry of Power, is India’s largest energy conglomerate with roots planted way back in 1975 to accelerate power development in the country. Since then it has established itself as the dominant power major with presence in the entire value chain of the power generation business. From fossil fuels it has forayed into generating electricity via hydro, nuclear and renewable energy sources. This foray will play a major role in lowering its carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To strengthen its core business, the corporation has diversified into the fields of consultancy, power trading, training of power professionals, rural electrification, ash utilisation and coal mining as well. NTPC was ranked 400th in the ‘2016, Forbes Global 2000’ ranking of the world’s biggest companies.
The total installed capacity of the company is 53,651 MW (including JVs) with 21 coal-based, seven gas- based stations, one Hydro-based station and one wind-based station. Nine Joint Venture stations are coal-based and 11 Solar PV projects. NTPC contributes 24 percent of total power generation due to its focus on high efficiency.