Ministries of coal & power have sided with PSU power utilities

The much-touted plan to optimally distribute the higher cost of imported coal among power producers via a price-pooling mechanism with cheaper domestic coal may go haywire. While a host of large upcoming private power projects would have increased their viability under the proposed regime, two key administrative ministries — those of power and coal — have virtually sided with public-sector power utilities, who fear losing their current cost advantage if price-pooling is implemented.