concern over shortage of coal

Union Minister of Power Mr. Sushil Kumar Shinde urged that the government should import the coal to meet the power shortage in the country.While Inaugrating the three day long conference focussing on the challenges in fuel management and the regulatory reforms in power sector in New Delhi today, Minister expressed concern over the shortage of coal, fuel and natural gas in the country.Mr. Shinde said that , the government is pursuing a five-fold strategy for toning up the power distribution , which includes improving governance standards and transparency across the power value chain, technology upgrades, tariff rationalization and strategic investment. He emphasized the imperative need for a fundamental restructuring of distribution governance structures by making adequate investments to modernize and upgrade distribution infrastructure, application of IT and other modern technologies for energy auditing and accounting.He added that the Power Ministry had facilitated the formation of several new joint ventures to manufacture super-critical boilers and turbine generators for thermal plants.