- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE thermal power stations in India have reportedly shut down due to coal shortage but the Narendra Modi government has said that there are sufficient coal reserves to produce electricity. However, the assurance has little convinced the country’s states who have urged the central government to increase the supply to meet the crisis.
The opposition Indian National Congress has slammed the Modi government for the coal shortage and expressed fear that power rates could also be increased after the hike in fuel prices. On Saturday (9), the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi warned that even the national capital could witness a power crisis because of coal shortage.
India’s state-run Coal India Limited is using its stocks worth 40 million tonnes to replenish utilities, which together have 7.2 million tonnes of inventory, equivalent to four days’ requirement, the coal ministry’s statement added, Reuters reported.
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Several eastern and northern states of the country have witnessed prolonged power shortage because of the crisis. Both commercial and residential users have faced a major threat because of the shortage.
The ministry said monsoon rains affected coal supplies to power plants while high global prices have curtailed generation by utilities that depend on imported coal.
Separately, the power ministry said coal supplies to power utilities on Saturday went up to 1.92 million tonnes while consumption was 1.87 million tonnes. It claimed that the level of coal stocks held by power companies will increase as Coal India is in the process of ramping up the supplies.
On Friday (8), Reuters reported that over half of India’s 135 coal-run power plants which supply around 70 per cent of the country’s electricity have fuel stocks to last less than three days.
Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia lashed out at the Modi government saying it was not ready to accept the coal crisis. He said the government’s policy to “turn a blind eye” to every problem could prove bad for the country.
In the northern Indian state of Punjab, former ruling party Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said the current crisis was entirely “man-made” and a direct result of the Modi government’s “utter neglect and absence of advance planning and preparedness”.
