Snapshot
During the year 2021-22, Indian Railways has augmented the transportation of coal through railways by a record 111 million tonnes and loaded a record 653 million tonnes of coal.
With prioritisation on coal loading, Indian Railways has augmented coal transportation by a record 111 million tonnes (MT) during the year 2021-22.
The Railways has been a prime supplier of coal to all the power plants and has taken substantive measures in the year 2021-22 and the current month of April to augment coal supply to power houses.
During the year 2021-22, Indian Railways has augmented the transportation of coal through railways by a record 111 million tonnes and loaded a record 653 million tonnes of coal, as compared to 542 million tonnes in the previous year, registering a growth of 20.4 per cent.
According to the Railways, this improvement has been possible due to various measures undertaken by Indian Railways — the movement of coal trains has been prioritised, and each and every train is being intensively monitored during the entire cycle from loading to movement and finally unloading.
Further, during the period September 2021 to March 2022, the loading of coal to the power sector was augmented by 32 per cent in just two quarters.
In April 2022, Indian Railways took many steps to prioritise the loading of coal to the power sector, which has led to an increase in the supply of coal of more than 10 per cent within one week.
Through this prioritisation and monitoring, the transit time of coal trains has been reduced significantly by 12-36 per cent for critical power plants.
Indian Railways has prioritised the movement of coal to long-distance power houses as well, which is reflected in the fact that the average lead of coal trains has increased by 7 per cent in the last five days, as compared to the average leads during 1-10 April.
Despite this increase in the average lead of coal trains, the time taken between two successive loading of the same rake for these stocks has reduced by 10 per cent.
With these operational innovations, Indian Railways has augmented the supply of coal trains to power houses and has also loaded more coal rakes on a sustained basis.
The Railways is fully geared up and has mobilised all resources to ensure that a sustained high level of coal supply is maintained to power houses and is committed to lifting all domestic coal that is brought to the sidings/good sheds by the coal companies and imported coal brought to the ports by the power generating companies.