The South East Central Railway (SECR) has cancelled a total of 713 trips until May 25, while the Northern Railways (NR) has cancelled 40 trips until May 8.

Passengers travelling from coal-producing states such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand will be affected the most by the cancellations.

At least 108 of India’s 173 thermal coal-fired power plants have critically low coal inventories right now. Maharashtra, Punjab, Jharkhand, Bihar, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh have all experienced power outages as a result of a lack of coal at thermal power plants.

On April 28, India experienced a power shortage of 192.1 million units as peak demand hit a new high of 204.6 GW. On Thursday, India’s thermal power plants had an average coal stock of less than eight days, compared to a norm of 24 days.

The shortage has occurred despite the fact that the Coal Ministry has stated that there is enough coal to meet the demand of power plants. Coal accounts for about 75% of India’s power needs, and the railways are the primary coal transporter.

The SECR division, which covers coal-producing regions, has cancelled 34 trains, according to the Rail Ministry. NR, which includes areas that receive coal for many of the north’s power plants, has decided to cancel the project.

Rail Ministry has raised the average daily loading of coal rakes to over 400 a day, the highest in the past five years. The national transporter has also put over 500 rakes for coal duty per day, 53 more were put into service last year. On Thursday, 1.62 million tonnes of coal was loaded in 427 rakes, according to the ministry.