At a recent meeting, union coal ministry asked public sector miner Coal India (CIL) to enter into fuel supply agreements (FSAs) with power plants for 78,000 mw capacity by September 6.

The order from the ministry comes after the earlier deadline for signing FSAs ended on August 30.

While CIL has so far signed around 130 FSAs, it has to sign a total of 173 FSAs with power companies to provide fuel for 78,000 mw power capacity.

Earlier on August 3, the board of CIL agreed to sign FSAs for a capacity of 78,000 mw instead of 60,678 mw.

CIL has signed FSA with NTPC after much delay as the latter raised quality issues of the dry-fuel supplied to it and had stopped payments to Eastern Coalfields.

In order to allow a third party to collect samples and determine the quality of the dry fuel, CIL modified its fuel supply agreement. Once the third-party sampling begins, the modified provision will come into effect.

It replaces a system of sampling and analysis that was to be conducted jointly by the buyer and the seller of coal.