Gulte News
India is going through a severe shortage in coal supply. At power generation plants, the coal reserves are depleting with each day passing. As a result electricity interruptions are being reported all over the country. As per the information we have about 16 states across the country are witnessing power outages.
The government of India learned about the short supply of coal and has swung into action. For the transportation of coal, the GoI has cancelled 42 passenger trains and surprisingly this is for the first time in history that GoI had cancelled passenger trains for smooth passage of coal supply trains. If the situation doesn’t improve then the GoI is contemplating to cancel more train services and by the end of May month, nearly 600 trains are likely to be cancelled.
The railway authority sources say that passenger, express, mail and commuter trains will be hit in the cancellation process. On the one hand power generation is declining due to coal shortage. At the same time, electricity consumption is increasing due to the scorching heat wave across the country. Many state governments have appealed to the public not to use ACs, coolers and geysers. This exposes the grave situation of power crisis in the country.
According to data, coal stocks at power plants across the country have fallen by 17 per cent since the first week of April. Normally, each power plant should have sufficient coal reserves that can last for about three weeks. But currently most power plants have coal to store for one day’s worth of electricity.
New Delhi Power Minister Satyendra Jain has expressed concern that if the situation continues for another two days, hospitals and metro services in the national capital could be disrupted.
There are multiple reasons for the coal crisis. The Russia and Ukraine war is one reason and the other is the suspension of coal supplies from Australia and Indonesia. It is uncertain when these hurdles would get cleared but the situation is in panic mode.
