As per information received from Coal India Limited (CIL), the subsidiary coal companies of CIL are supplying the requisite quality and quantity of coal to all power stations under Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA).

In terms of FSA, Joint Sampling/ Third Party Sampling and analysis facilities at loading ends are provided to the power utilities for assessment of quality of coal jointly by the buyer and the seller and payment is made by the buyers as per the quality of coal so assessed and thereby loading of proper quality coal to the power plants is ensured and taken care of.

All other FSA holders, having annual contractual quantity of 4 lakh tonne and above per annum are also provided with the same facility of Joint Sampling/ Third Party Sampling at loading end. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (IC) in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

The Minister further stated that in order to produce better quality coal and to improve the quality as well as Gross Calorific Value (GCV) of coal, CIL has adopted the following steps to improve the quality of coal:-

i) Selective mining by Surface Miner in opencast mine and Continuous Miner in underground mine for elimination of bands wherever necessary /feasible.

ii) Appropriate positioning of OB and coal benches to avoid contamination.

iii) Scrapping/cleaning of coal benches before blasting.

iv) Installation of metal detectors / magnetic separators over running conveyors before coal loading.

v) Crushing arrangement are also provided for supply of sized coal for better consumer satisfaction

vi) All the major projects having high capacity coal handling plants dispatch sized and uniform quality of coal to suit the requirement of consumers.

vii) Participation of consumer representative in Joint Sampling/ Third Party Sampling and analysis of coal with consumers, based on which consumers are provided with the facility of adjustment of payment against coal value.

viii) Arrangement for awareness programmes / imparting training to the personnel involved in production of coal regarding importance of coal quality and need to improve and maintain the same during mining operations.