India has cancelled some passenger trains to allow for faster movement of coal carriages as the nation scrambles to replenish depleting inventories at power plants in a bid to avoid a full-blown power crisis.
A scorching summer is driving demand for coal, which helps generate about 70% of the country's electricity. Several parts of India are facing long hours of blackouts, while some industries are cutting output due to the fossil fuel's shortage, threatening the economy's revival from the pandemic-induced slump. The risk of a further spike in inflation is rising at a time when the government is struggling to rein in high energy prices fueled by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The measure is temporary passenger services will be restored as soon as the situation normalizes, said Gaurav Krishna, an executive director at Indian Railways, one of Asia's largest networks. The state-run operator is trying to minimize the time it takes to move coal to power plants, he said by phone.
Indian Railways often blamed for disruptions in coal supplies, as the lack of carriages makes it difficult to carry the fuel over long distances. Congested routes, where passenger and goods trains jostle for passage, sometimes delay shipments. Still, the carrier stays a preferred choice to transport coal, especially for users located far away from mines.
The railways plan to add 100,000 more wagons to its fleet to meet the growing demand. It is also constructing dedicated freight corridors to deliver goods faster.
Coal reserves at India's power plants have declined almost 17% since the start of this month and are barely a third of the required levels. The supply crunch comes just months after a crippling power crisis last autumn saw coal stockpiles plunge to an average of four days, triggering blackouts in several states.
Electricity demand has jumped as temperatures have soared in many parts of India, prompting the weather department to issue heat-wave warnings. The country's average temperature reached almost 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) in March, the highest on record for the month since authorities started collecting the data in 1901. Declaring that the supplies from the Coal India Limited have been erratic, Maharashtra power minister Nitin accused the Center of not helping the state.
New Delhi: The overall power crisis in Maharashtra is far greater than just Mumbai, which has been largely protected so far, Maharashtra power minister Nitin said today. There is a shortage of 20,000 lakh metric tonnes and key thermal power plants in the state will run out of coal in less than 2 days, the minister told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Declaring that the supplies from the Coal India Limited have been erratic, he accused the Center of not helping the state.
Maharashtra, he said, is facing "power politics". "Because Maharashtra is in the hands of the MVA (Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi) government, the government of India is not cooperating properly with Maharashtra and that's why the shortage is fabricated here," he said.
"The coal shortage is there. There is no question about it. Because the agreement which we have with CIL (Coal India Limited) after the bridge linkage is also there and some MO is also there with WCL, ECL," he said.
"We will have a contract of 10 lakh metric ton. The shortage is of about 60 to 70 per cent," the minister said.
"We should get (the whole quota) but they are supplying only 85 per cent. So there is a shortage of 50 per cent coal. After that also, our power plants are generating power and improving their production by 8.56 per cent. We are trying to provide power at the peak period for the people of Maharashtra," he said.
The Coal India Limited, he said, "is not giving supply properly. They are not giving the quality of coal in supply... in many areas there is a shortage of racks also".
Parts of the country's financial capital Mumbai and its surrounding areas had an hour-long blackout on Monday. There was a power cut again today in pockets of the city and its suburbs.
The minister today said the situation in Mumbai is "under control". Monday's outage, he said, was because of technical problems.
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