The Union Coal Ministry on July 3 gave a commitment for fuel supply agreements (FSAs) to eleven power projects with an investment of Rs 52,349 crore. With this, the government has broken the four year jinx in signing FSAs in the country. These have been waiting for fuel supply agreements since 2009.    

The end to their wait came on July 3 as they were among the 18 power projects taken up for clearance by the newly formed arm of the Cabinet Committee on Investment formed to fast track projects with investment more than Rs 1,000 crore. The arm called the project monitoring group discussed these projects with a sub group representing Coal Ministry, resulting in the approvals for FSAs.    

These clearances are final, a government official said. The projects which could not be cleared would be taken up afresh. There has been no FSA by the domestic coal supplier Coal India since 2009 and projects worth 78,000 mw are in the queue, waiting for FSAs thanks to short supply of domestic coal. A recent decision of the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs to allow pass through of the cost of imported coal to recipients is said to have triggered confidence for fresh FSAs.    

All the FSAs are to be signed by August 31, sources said. The beneficiaries of the decision include Adani Power, DB Power, GMR Kamalanga Energy, Talwandi Power, Lanco Babandh Power.