Minister of state for power Jyotiratidya Scindia is quoted as saying in a media that the government would take the proposal on coal price pooling to the cabinet in the next two weeks.

He has reportedly said that there are few options before the government on how to implement the new system and the government is willing to consider all of them.

The power ministry is considering whether to implement the pooling mechanism for all existing power projects that have come up prior to April 2009 or restrict its application to projects that have come up or are coming up after march 2009.

The ministry is also considering whether to make coastal plants run on imported coal while diverting domestic coal linkage to such plants to power plants closer to coal-producing areas.

The ministry is also considering another option of blending coal based on calorific value of domestic and imported varieties that suit specific requirements of a power projects.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) asked the coal and power ministries to finalise a workable formula on pooling before it can decide on the issue. The coal ministry had earlier proposed the limited application policy for price pooling in a note forwarded to CCEA.