Bhubaneswar: The Utkal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to save Odisha-based industries from the ‘alarming situation of closure’ due to prolonged coal supply crunch by Coal India. Over the past year, industries that are dependent on indigenous coal to run their plants have been severely impacted due to the supply shortage, bringing multiple factories to the verge of closure, the UCCI said in a letter Friday to Patnaik.
“We beg to state that despite several representations by various industry players as well as associations, the coal supply scenario to the non-power sector has deteriorated steeply,” UCCI president Brahma Mishra said in the letter.
The industry body accused the Mahanadi Coalfields of consistently ignoring captive power plants-based industries in Odisha despite maintaining a healthy production level.
“Since August 2021, many are struggling to get uninterrupted supplies for continued operations as most of the available coal and rakes are being diverted to the power sector on priority,” the letter said.
The continuing coal shortage due to stoppage or curtailment of coal supplies and rakes has threatened the very survival of the local industries. It poses the risk of loss of lakhs of livelihoods, the UCCI said. “This has brought the industry to a standstill and made a major dent on Odisha’s image of being a coal-surplus state,” Mishra pointed out.
Procuring high-cost imported coal with expensive ocean freight rates is unviable for any of the consumers, the letter stated. There has been no official communication from Coal India regarding the possible duration of supply crunch in spite of such adversities, it added.
“The local industries cannot survive in this prevailing situation without the government’s support for normalising uninterrupted supplies of coal for sustainable industry operations,” the letter further stated.