As several states are facing an acute power shortage amid the coal crisis and the Indian Railways has decided to cancel some passenger trains to speed up the movement of coal rakes to power plants, government officials said train cancellation has been done in non-priority sectors and only in less-busy routes to ensure coal movement and faster turnaround. The Indian Railways decided to cancel 657 train trips, including 509 mail/express trains and 148 MEMU services.
The cancellation of trains is an interim measure, government official said.
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A total of 533 coal rakes were put on duty, said a railway official. For the power sector, 427 rakes were loaded yesterday and 1.62 million tonnes of coal was loaded for the power sector. "The cancellation of trains is an interim measure. We are reviewing the situation on daily basis," an official said.
"Coal production by CIL has increased by 27.2% in April 2022 as compared to same period of last year and coal despatch has increased by 5.8%. The coal stock at CIL is 56.7 Mt and that at SCCL is 4.3 MT and at captive coal blocks is about 2.3 MT. Thus, sufficient coal stock with coal companies is available," an official said.
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The coal stock at Good Shed sidings, washery sidings and port is about 4.7 MT and is ready to be moved to power plants immediately. Apart from this, around 2 MT coal stock is also available at the CIL sidings. Indian Railways is fully geared to move this stock to power gencos across the country. It is increasing rakes' availability.
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The coal stock at Good Shed sidings, washery sidings and port is about 4.7 MT and is ready to be moved to power plants immediately. Apart from this, around 2 MT coal stock is also available at the CIL sidings. Indian Railways is fully geared to move this stock to power gencos across the country. It is increasing rakes' availability.
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The Delhi government on Friday said the situation is serious as many power plants are left wirh only one day's stock of coal. Warning of a possible supply disruption in the national capital, Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain on Friday said tthe main reason for the huge shortage of coal was the lack of adequate number of rakes. The National Thermal Power Corporation(NTPC), in reply to the Delhi government's claims of shortage of coal at its plants, said in a tweet that currently Unchahar and Dadri power stations, supplying power to the national capital, are running at full capacity and receiving "regular" coal supplies.
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.
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Home/India News/Coal shortage: Production up by 23.2%; only non-priority trains cancelled
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