Coal situation stays grim across India, Union Minister Amit Shah takes stock

NEW DELHI: Amid widespread concerns over power cuts across the country because of inadequate coal supply at generation units, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday met both coal and power ministers to take stock of the situation.

Besides power minister R K Singh and coal minister Pralhad Joshi, top officials of the ministries and senior officials from the state-run energy conglomerate NTPC Ltd, attended the hour-long meeting. While the ministry of coal sought to allay fears of disruption in power supply, the latest daily report of the Central Electric Authority said as many as 115 of the 135 thermal power plants in the country are now on coal stocks of less than a week. As many as 96 of these plants that generate 71% of total thermal power in the country, have coal stocks of four days or less (see table below).