At a time when the whole country including Odisha is reeling under acute power shortage, the 3000 Mw power plant of National thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) at Kaniha, the second largest power station in India, is forced to regulate generation due to less supply of coal.

According to sources, the power plant is in supercritical state having a coal stock for one day only as against the normal 15 days stock. There were 3.5 million tonnes of coal at its stock yard on April 1. But due to short supply of coal from Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL), the stock has depleted to a level of just “hand to mouth”, forcing the company to slash generation from its six 500 Mw units.