Power Minister Veerappa Moily today said that power companies can sign Fuel Supply Agreements, FSAs, with Coal India Limited even if there is no Power Purchase Agreements, PPAs with distribution companies.

Our correspondent reports, the Prime Minister’s Office, PMO, had last week directed power companies facing coal shortage to sign FSAs with Coal India by the end of next month.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function in New Delhi today, Mr Moily said the process of signing FSAs is right on track as per the direction by the PMO. He said all the issues related to signing of FSAs with Coal Ministry have been sorted.

Earlier, Mr Moily said the government plans to add 18,000 Mega Watts of fresh power generation capacity during the current year. He said, this would be part of the efforts to set up a total of 80,000 Mega Watts capacity in the current Five Year Plan period ending March 2017.

Mr Moily also said that the Planning Commission has approved budgetary support for power ministry’s flagship Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana scheme in the 12th Plan.