Amidst a reported shortage of coal at thermal power projects, Indian Railways has braced for transporting coal round the clock to power plants. The national transporter is internally treating the shortage as an “emergency”. Instructions have gone out to the principal chief operations managers of all zonal railways to man operations control rooms round the clock and produce hourly bulletins for the ministry and the general managers.
Meanwhile, the number of coal rakes loaded per day rose to around 440-450 on Monday from about 430 at the time when the shortage came to light. On Monday 1.77 million tonnes of coal were moved, up from 1.48 million tonnes on the same day last year.
