Indian Railways cancels more trains to aid coal movement

To deal with the coal supply shortage at thermal plants, Indian Railways, on Thursday, decided to cancel more trains in order to prioritise movement of coal rakes.

In a statement, the Indian Railways announced that 1081 trips of more than 40 trains had been dropped. This number includes the 21 trains cancelled last week. According to Rajiv Jain, spokesperson of Indian Railways, these trains could stay cancelled up to May 24.]

Railways has deployed 86 per cent of its wagon fleet to augment coal transportation to various power plants in the country. Out of the 1,31,403 BOXN or open wagons in its fleet, Indian Railways is using 1,13,880 for coal transportation—as part of the plan formulated by the national transporter, in consultation with the ministries of coal and power.

On an average, the Railways is loading around 28,470 wagons with coal to meet the demand from power plants. A coal train usually gets up to 84 wagons, said the Railways.

Separately, Union Power Minister R K Singh reviewed the status of import of coal for blending in the thermal power plants with the States.

Senior officials of state governments and power generation companies (GENCOS) attended the virtually held meeting.

The states were advised to place the coal import orders for blending purpose, so that the additional coal reaches power plants within the end of this month.]

Singh also stated that the domestic coal would be supplied to all GENCOS, in proportion to that received from coal companies. He further advised the states to increase the output from captive mines to meet their coal requirements, which will help in reducing the burden on linkage coal.

He also emphasised that states must act timely and ensure that the coal supply to their power plants is in the Rail-cum-Road (RCR) mode to meet the shortfall at their power plants. He also proclaimed that in the event states do not lift the RCR coal, it would be offered to other states. The deallocated state would then be responsible for any consequent power-shortages in its sovereignty.