Calcutta/Durgapur, Oct. 12: Puja over, Bengal again faces the spectre of long power cuts, triggered by an “acute coal crisis” and a sharp rise in demand.

The West Bengal Power Development Corporation has had to shut down two of its units — a 300MW unit at Sagardighi and a 210MW one at Bandel — because of the shortage of coal.

The problem was compounded as the authorities at Santaldih power plant today shut down its two operating units after a conveyor belt collapsed.

Immediately after Puja, large parts of Calcutta and the districts experienced blackouts on Friday and Saturday. The shortfall was nearly 450MW across the state yesterday.

Sunday brought relief as demand dwindled, but Monday could mean trouble again.

“There is an acute coal crisis at the West Bengal Power Development Corporation plants, which have been forced to bring down generation. Each plant has less than four days of coal stock. We will review the situation tomorrow,” power secretary Sunil Mitra said.

Plants that require 52,000 tonnes of coal a day have been allegedly getting about 21,000 tonnes.

“The supply has become so bad over the past three days that we have been forced to shut down two of our units at Sagardighi and Bandel. Generation at Bakreswar and Kolaghat is down by about 300MW,” said power development corporation managing director S. Mahapatra.

Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) blamed rain in the coal belt for the drop in supply from its open-cast mines. “Production suffered enormously because of rain immediately before Puja,” said director (technical) U.S. Upadhyay.

He also blamed employees going on leave for the mess. “Moreover, 50 per cent of the workers have gone on leave during Puja, compounding the situation.”

Ironically, lack of rain over the past few days is one of the reasons why the demand for power has shot up.

In the week before Puja, the demand was 200 to 250MW less than the usual because of rain.

“After Puja, offices, factories, schools and colleges started working full steam and the rain stopped, bringing back the sultry weather. So the use of airconditioners shot up and the demand went up by around 500MW,” a power department official said.

“From tomorrow, the city and the districts are likely to be hit by power cuts till the coal situation improves,” he added.

ECL’s Upadhyay, however, said the sunny days should improve coal supply.

Officials said mining is affected every monsoon. “But the heavy rain generally comes in August and September (the later half of the rainy season), giving the power plants time to build up a buffer stock. This year, the heaviest rain occurred just after the onset of monsoon, flooding the open-cast mines. Then on, it rained off and on and it became difficult for us to supply enough to clear the backlog and help build a buffer stock,” an ECL official said.