Amidst power crisis, all goods trains lead to Maharashtra

Amid massive power crisis in the state due to unavailability of railway rakes to carry coal, the 'black gold' aka coal has grown dearer for the state government. The Railway authorities in Mumbai are claiming that they are running as many goods train ferrying coal, as possible under the direction of Railway ministry headed by Piyush Goyal. It has also asked the rail zones to monitor the situation and hold joint meetings on the same with Rail and Coal ministries frequently.

In Maharashtra, the Central Railway (CR) supplies coal to most of the power plants in the state.

The state was facing power shortage with most power plants running on critical coal stock. The coal stocks are considerably lower than the mandate by Central Electricity Authority of India of maintaining 25 to 30 days' coal stock at thermal power plants. Of the 15 power plants that run on coal in the state, 9 of them that are in critical or super critical condition with coal stocks that will last for 2-5 days. The Railways are trying to mitigate the shortage of coal supplied to the power plants.

Sources in railways said that they have been asked to concentrate on ferrying more coal and carry out only safety-related blocks on tracks. The CR officials hinted at the possibility of curtailing the number of holiday special trains in the weeks to come. "We are running 30-35 rakes of coal daily. We have been asked to ensure that coal supply to these power plants is not affected," said a CR official.

Each rake has 40-45 wagons; some even more with each carrying approximately 3500 metric tonnes of coal. "We have sufficient rakes to carry coal and there is no problem," said Sunil Udasi, Chief PRO, Central Railway.

The situation is bleak as these power plants are living on the edge. The demand for electricity in the state, as of October 16, stands between 24100 MW and 19500 MW depending on the time of day. Load shedding across parts of the state is anywhere between 200 MW and 1100 MW, which has now become a problem for the state government.

Most of these include interiors of the state which are reeling under power cuts for 3-4 hours daily. Even Thane and Navi Mumbai are facing power cuts for around 15 minutes. The officials from Maharashtra State Power Generation Co. Ltd (MAHAGENCO) said that the condition of coal supply is too close for comfort.

"We are regularly monitoring the goods train supplying coal to our plants. The situation is slowly improving," said a MAHAGENCO official. There have been allegations that the coal is being diverted to other states like Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where elections are due in coming days.

STARING INTO DARKNESS

Acute coal crisis has brought back fears for electricity shortage

15 – Total plants in Maha

7 – Super critical condition

2 – Critical condition

20100 Mw – Total capacity

16 tonnes – Total imported coal

Figures as of Oct 8 (Source: Central Electricity Authority)

LOAD-SHEDDING

• The coal stocks are considerably lower than the mandate by Central Electricity Authority of India of maintaining 25 to 30 days’ coal stock at thermal power plants
   
• Acute shortage had forced state electricity distributor to carry out load-shedding in parts of state
   
• The state has been reeling under acute coal shortage for over a year
   
• Between May and September last year, several parts of the state experienced widespread load-shedding 

We are running 30-35 rakes of coal daily. We have been asked to ensure that coal supply to these power plants is not affected and we are doing our best to keep the situation under control.
CR official