Bihar suffers acute power crisis

The shutdown of five units of NTPC’s thermal power plant at Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district started a power crisis in Bihar.

The shutdown mas done after the plant's coal stocks depleted following the derailment of 21 wagons of a coal special train meant for it on Sunday night in Jharkhand.

Out of the total seven units, the remaining two units of the plant may also shut down anytime due to depletion of the coal stock. In total, the plant needs 40,000 tonnes of coal daily. At present, coal stock is almost nil, said a senior official.

“The situation is not likely to normalise unless the rail track is cleared. It will take another three days to improve the situation. With the plant virtually running out of coal stock, we will be forced to shut down even the two running units,” said an official.

“On Tuesday, Bihar got 810 MW power from the central sector, as against its normal scheduled allocation of 1722 MW,” said the spokesman of Bihar State Electricity Board, H R Pandey.

“We may get some additional power from hydel power plants during the peak evening hours,” he said.