Thermal power stations of Sikka, Gandhinagar, Ukai and Wanakbori will be covered under the sampling, which will enable the Board get better quality coal.

The process was warranted after Coal India Limited (CIL) stopped sampling from March 1993, which resulted in GEB getting inferior quality coal, which also included pebbles. The poor quality had affected the boilers of the power stations.

According to Board Chairman Nalin Bhatt, the GEB purchases coal worth Rs 11,00 crore every year, which is 20 per cent of the Board's budget. The Board had in the last several months initiated a process to restart the joint sampling.

Sources say though the sampling was expected to start by February-March, the process was delayed as an agent had to be selected and terms and conditions worked out. Bhatt said the Board had started sampling at two thermal power stations from April 1. Earlier, the sampling was done only at the loading points, which made it difficult to keep a check on the quality, he said.

Bhatt, during representations, had stated that the GEB had to incur losses running into crores of rupees because of the poor quality of coal. Stating that the Board had already put up claims of Rs 1,085 crore for getting inferior quality coal between March 15, 1993 and December 31, 1998, he said discussions were in the last stage to solve out the issue.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the joint sampling was signed a few months ago by Board Executive Director P K Das, M C Gandhi and chief general manager of CIL D Malik and the chief sales manager.

The Board requires 42,000 metric tonne coal daily, of which 6,000 metric tonne is used at Ukai, 22,000 metric tonne at Wanakbori, 12,000 metric tonne at Gandhinagar and 2,000 metric tonne at Sikka. Annually, the Board spends an estimated Rs 11,000 crore towards purchase of coal.

The sampling would be done at 60 points from where the coal is loaded and then also at the receiving points. Unlike earlier when the sampling was done at one end for 12 hours, now it would be done for 24 hours at both the points.