MUMBAI (Reuters) – India railways ministry has decided to prioritise loading of coal for power plants from sheds, washeries to June end, it said in a notification on Tuesday.
It has also been decided to prioritize loading of imported coal from ports, the railway ministry said.
India is likely to face more power cuts this year as utilities’ coal inventories are at the lowest pre-summer levels in at least nine years and electricity demand is expected to rise at the fastest pace in at least 38 years.
Coal inventories at power plants had an average stock of nine days at the beginning of this financial year starting April 1, the lowest since at least 2014. Federal guidelines recommend power plants to have at least 24 days of stock on average.
(Reporting by Nupur Anand and Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by)
