Power shortage: Railways cancels 753 trips to prioritise coal delivery

With low coal stocks signalling a power crisis, the Railways has decided to cancel 753 trips involving 42 trains to prioritise the delivery of coal rakes across the country.

A total of 713 trips of the South East Central Railway (SECR) have been cancelled till May 25 while 40 trips of the Northern Railways (NR) have been cancelled till May 8.

The cancellations will primarily impact passengers travelling from key coal-producing states, including Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.

At least 108 of India’s 173 thermal coal-fired plants currently have critically low levels of coal inventory. A number of states, including Maharashtra, Punjab, Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, have faced power outages due to a lack of sufficient coal at thermal power plants.