RUDRA BISWAS Ranchi, Aug. 3: While the state is reeling from severe power crisis, the lack of Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited (TVNL) chairman is a spanner in generating capacity power at the plant. Equipped with two units with a total installed capacity of 440 MW, TVNL is being forced to operate only one. Reason: since June 18, there is no one to authorise payments for regular coal purchases or to renew contracts with transporters for carrying coal from the collieries of Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) to the TVNL plant at Lalpania. Sources said a proposal to nominate the present energy secretary as TVNL chairman has been pending with the state government since June this year. The dilly-dallying approach of the government is bleeding the state exchequer every day, as Jharkhand has to purchase power from outside sources due to inadequate production at TVNL. "The state government has incurred an annual loss of around Rs 100 crore for buying power at higher prices from outside sources to keep its wheels moving,' sources said. With generation at Patratu Thermal Power Station dismal, the state is compelled to rely on its premier power generation facility at TVNL to meet a major chunk of its requirements. Though TVNL is equipped to generate 440 MW, it is forced to work only one of its units, restricting its generation to a maximum of 200MW per day, due to lack of adequate coal supply. TVNL officials said that one of its units damaged in May last year has now been fully repaired. "But we are unable to re-commission the unit due to shortage of coal and diesel stock,' an official said. Officials pointed out that TVNL would need 1.5 lakh tonnes of coal annually to operate both its units. Since 2005, no full-time chairman or managing director had been nominated by the state government for TVNL. As a stop gap arrangement, energy secretary Aditya Swarup had been nominated chairman and Jharkhand State Electricity Board general manager B. Ram was made the managing director with three-month tenure. Though their tenure had been extended for three months each, their extension has not been approved since June 18, leaving TVNL headless. Energy secretary N.N. Pandey told The Telegraph that the delay in appointing a full-time chairman for TVNL was due to the recent decision of the Patna High Court ordering a transfer of the ownership rights over TVNL to the Bihar government. "There had been a move prior to my taking over charge late last month of the energy department to get a full-time chairman for TVNL. Now that the Supreme Court has ordered a stay on the Patna High Court judgement, the decks have been cleared for the appointment of a chairman and a managing director to head the affairs at TVNL,' Pandey said.