As India crawls back to its normal economic activities, states have been facing coal crisis which Union coal minister Prahlad Joshi has acknolwedged and assured that the situation will normalise in the next 3-4 days.
Joshi pointed that international coal prices have suddenly spikes which led to shrink in import while domestic coal production was hit by heavy rains across the country but he asserted that despite adverse circumstances, the country reported highest coal production in October.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to address the coal crisis to which Joshi said he will issue a statement only after detailed information, adding that the NTPC looks into it.
Kejriwal’s letter noted that the national Capital’s power generation was reeling due to shortage of coal for the third month in a row.
The problem that has been continuing since August “has affected the power generation from the major Central Generating Plants supplying power to NCT of Delhi”, Kejriwal wrote.
An energy expert explained that since industrial and economic activities are increasing due to the weakening of the pandemic, demand for coal has not only jumped in India but all over the world, which is also pushing global coal prices and thus making import more expensive for India. “If the crisis is not controlled soon, then there will be darkness in many states of the country including Delhi,” the expert cautioned.