Electricity from coal gasification
There has been no follow-up news on the interesting and important news report by Shamim Jahangir on the matter since last reported in your daily on 4th November. In our national interest, I feel as far as the report goes, we should take up this offer to set up an experimental 10MW power plant, based on coal gasification of the rather deep Jamalpur coal seam; which lies 500 to 1000 metres below the surface! Given the depth of the coal seam, possibly power generation by gasification should be a cost effective option for power generation, rather than mining it, in my opinion.
As reported, the Power, Energy & Mineral Resources Ministry had formed a 9-member committee to scrutinise the proposal around June 2010. Over five months have gone, and many cups of tea in the committee may have been consumed, but the findings are still elusive! Or, is it a state secret, not meant for the ears of taxpayers and prospective buyers of electric power? What is the result of the (expert!) scrutiny? Or, are we not to question why?
Frankly speaking, why should we not go ahead with the 10MW demonstration plant to be set up by the proposer, without any obligation on our part, if it is not successful? May we, the power consumers, kindly request the government to throw some light on the matter? Or is the proposal still passing through the 500 to 1000 layers of bureaucracy, not visible to the eye?
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