Tamil Nadu electricity minister alleges discrepancies in coal records

Electricity minister of Tamil Nadu, V Senthil Balaji, revealed discrepancies between coal records and that of actual coal stocks. According to the minister, around 2.38 lakh tonnes of coal has gone missing. The minister informed that the difference came to attention during an inspection by the senior officials while inspecting the North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS) at Ennore. The missing coal is worth Rs 85 crore. Moreover, an investigation would be held to understand how the coal has disappeared, and the guilty would be punished. Senthil also revealed that the former government did not maintain work at the power stations in the previous nine months. Therefore, no equipment was bought in the last three years. According to the media reports, similar investigations have started at Mettur and Thoothukudi power plants as well. NCTPS is located around 25 km from Chennai city. The total installed capacity of this plant is 1,830 MW. It is one of the biggest power plants in Tamil Nadu. Image Source