- The Union Minister of State for Power and New & Renewable Energy (IC) and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri RK Singh and the Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Pralhad Joshi jointly launched PRAKASH (Power Rail Koyla Availability through Supply Harmony) portal in New Delhi on October 3, 2019.
- The Portal aims at bringing better coordination for coal supplies among all stakeholders viz – Ministry of Power, Ministry of Coal, Coal India, Railways and power utilities.
- This is an important step in ensuring adequate availability and optimum utilization of coal at thermal power plants.
- The Portal is designed to help in mapping and monitoring entire coal supply chain for power plants, viz –
- Coal Stock at supply end (mines),
- coal quantities/ rakes planned,
- coal quantity in transit and
- coal availability at power generating station.
Benefits of Portal to the Stakeholders
- The portal makes available following information on a single platform –
- Coal company will be able to track stocks and the coal requirement at power stations for effective production planning
- Indian Railways will plan to place the rakes as per actual coal available at siding and stock available at power stations.
- Power stations can plan future schedule by knowing rakes in pipe line and expected time to Reach.
- PRAKASH Portal is developed by NTPC and sources data from different stakeholders such as Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) and coal companies.
- All reports are available in PDF/Excel format. However, to present information in a user friendly method, the Portal gives graphical representation of reports with details shown on the map of India.
