Railways’ daily coal loading up 20% over last year

NEW DELHI: Indian Railways has significantly stepped up the loading and operation of coal rakes to ensure supply to thermal power plants across the country. Officials said the average daily loading of coal has increased to nearly 1.6 million tonnes, which is about 20% more compared to last year.

On Thursday, a maximum of 427 coal rakes were loaded only for the power sector and on Friday the number was 401. Officials said they will maintain coal loading of more than 400 rakes a day for at least a couple of weeks considering the prevailing condition.

“Senior officers have also been rushed to major coal producing areas to take stock of the situation and see that the preparations are in place for sustained accelerated loading and transportation of coal to different parts of country. There is a focus on getting future-ready so that there is no shortage of coal availability at plants in August-September,” said an official.

On Friday, the Railways had announced the cancellation of 753 trips of 42 trains to free up tracks for coal rakes as peak demand scaled a new peak of 207 gigawatts. TOI had reported that in an unprecedented move the national transporter has started cancelling train trips from March 28 and this will continue till May 24. The government has also clarified that the trains being cancelled operate in non-priority sectors.