The Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MahaGenco) on Friday constituted a high-level committee to probe into the facts after a consignment of high-quality coal meant for Koradi Thermal Power Station (KTPS) was found to have been diverted and pilfered on September 28.

The four-member committee will be headed by MahaGenco’s Director (Coal Mining) Purushottam Jadhav and investigate facts of incident, fix responsibility of agency or employees and also propose norms to prevent future incidents of pilferage, a press release of MahaGenco stated, adding that the committee would submit its report within a week.

Abhay Harne, Executive Director (Operations and Maintenance); Nitin Chandurkar, Executive Director (IT); and Col (Retd) Rajiv Malewar, Chief General Manager (Security); are the members of the committee. It may be mentioned that the MahaGenco had filed a complaint with Khaparkheda police station after a consignment of high-quality coal meant for KTPS was found to have been diverted and pilfered.

A truck carrying coal from Western Coalfields Ltd’s (WCL) Gondegaon mine, meant for the KTPS, was diverted to a private establishment while another truck laden with inferior quality coal arrived at KTPS for unloading. Both trucks were bearing the same number plate and their GPS equipment was also manipulated. According to MahaGenco officials, the concerned transport contractor had replaced the vehicle number (MH-22/AA-3414) which was loaded with good quality coal from Gondegaon coal mine and replaced by another truck (MH-40/BG-0901) with inferior quality coal.

As more than 100 trucks are transporting coal to KTPS everyday, the MahaGenco officials suspect a big coal scam by transporters in connivance with a section of government officials.

The inferior quality coal also impacted the power generation capacity of MahaGenco for a long time.