Stay on TNEB handling coal facility vacated

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has vacated its interim status-quo order and paved the way for the expansion of coal handling facility at the TNEB’s dedicated berths in Ennore Port.Holding that the order of status quo granted earlier by a single judge would paralyse the laudable objective of the TNEB and thereby plunge into the power starved State into more power shut downs, the HC vacated the earlier interim order and paved the way for the expansion of coal handling facility at the TNEB’s dedicated berths in Ennore port.NTPC-Tamil Nadu Energy Company Limited (NTECL), a joint venture of TNEB with National Thermal Power Corporation, had invited bids for the purpose of handling, port clearance and inland transportation of coal to NTECL’s thermal power project, which was under construction at Ennore.Challenging this, Chettinad International Coal Terminal Private Limited (CICTPL), which entered into an agreement with Ennore Port for handling coal for consumers other than TNEB, filed an application alleging that the arrangement would nullify its exclusive right under the licence agreement and would seriou- sly affect the viability of the project undertaken by it.A single judge, while referring the dispute to an expert committee, ordered maintenance of status quo and dismissed the petition. Against this, the present batch of appeals were filed.Allowing the appeals filed by TNEB, NTECL and Ennore Port, a division bench comprising Justice R Banumathi and Justice B Rajendran dismissed the appeal from CICTPL and observed that in so far as arbitration proceedings, the parties should work out the remedy in petition filed under section 11 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act and pending before the Chief Justice.“Weighing the various facts and circumstances, we find that the CICTPL having entered into licence agreement for handling non-TNEB coal, it cannot restrict or abridge TNEB’s right of user of its dedicated berths and the CICTPL has not shown prima facie case. TNEB, with a laudable objective of increasing power generation in the state, has set up three thermal power projects at the cost of `15,243 crore. TNEB has also entered into a joint venture agreement with NTP C and NTECL was established and the requirements of the new project, which would to be to the tune of 35 MTPA. For the ongoing thermal power projects and the joint venture company, coal have to be discharged at Ennore port at the dedicated berths of TNEB.”