AIPEF seeks PM intervention on coal imports

28 Jul 2022 CW Team

The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to direct the power ministry to withdraw its directions to states to expedite coal imports for thermal power plants.

AIPEF—in a letter sent to the Prime Minister—has stressed that the Ministry of Power must be directed to withdraw its orders and directives to the states/state gencos, forcing them to expedite coal imports that were not required/justified in the wake of the coal ministry's reply in Parliament on July 25, an AIPEF statement said.

AIPEF has said that in this context now the extra cost of imported coal must be borne by the power ministry.

The AIPEF letter stated that on December 7, 2021, the Ministry of Power took the decision to import 10% of coal as the domestic supply was inadequate.

On April 28, 2022, the Ministry of Power directed that thermal stations and state gencos must import coal in time bound manner, 50% by June 30, 2022; 40% up to August 31, 2022; and 10% up to October 31, 2022.

On May 18, 2022, the power ministry issued a direction (order), stating that if blending with domestic coal is not started by June 15, 2022, then the domestic allocation of the concerned defaulter thermal power plants will be further reduced by 5%.

Infrastructure Transport

07 Apr 2026

Tunnelling Begins for Thane, Borivali twin tunnel project

Tunnelling work has commenced for the 11.84-km Thane–Borivali Twin Tunnel, set to be India’s longest urban road tunnel, marking a key milestone in Mumbai’s infrastructure development.As per a post shared by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority on social media platform X, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) ‘Nayak’—the country’s largest single-shield hard rock TBM for an urban tunnel—was launched by Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday. The event was attended by Eknath Shinde and Sunetra Pawar, among other dignitaries. A second TBM, ‘Arjuna’, is expected to be launched so..

Large Format Store Planned At M G Road Metro Station

M G Road station in Bengaluru is set to host the city’s first large-format commercial and experience space, with planning led by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited. BMRCL has invited proposals to develop and operate a central business district destination at the Purple?Pink Line interchange. The plan positions the station as a commercial hub designed to serve a broad commuter base across the city. The proposal is part of a broader effort to activate transit nodes commercially. Tender documents set a minimum monthly rental of Rs 0.944 million (mn), inclusive of GST, for the large-format..

Government Cancels Auction Of Eleven Critical Mineral Blocks

The government has cancelled the auction of 11 critical and strategic mineral blocks after receiving a poor investor response and failing to attract a sufficient number of qualified bidders. The decision represents a setback to plans to ramp up domestic exploration and production of critical minerals amid global supply chain disruptions and rising demand for materials used in clean energy and advanced technologies. The mines ministry issued an annulment notice setting out the reasons for the cancellations. The annulment notice indicated that the auction process for five mineral blocks was canc..