Coal news and updates

Have rakes, but no demand from power plants!: IR

Indian Railways (IR), which has been often criticised in the past for its inability to supply the required number of rakes for transportation of coal from the mines to the power plants, is currently facing a predicament wherein it is not in a position to fully utilise its entire stock of rakes due to low coal demand from the power sector, a senior official from the world’s leading railway network told ICMW.

“At present, we can give many more rakes to Coal India Ltd (CIL), but there is no demand,” the official informed.

Indian Railways had supplied, on an average, 194 rakes per day in 2014-15, but in the current financial year (2015-16), the average number supplied to CIL touched 213-215 rakes per day, the official said.

“We can give up to 230 rakes per day to CIL at present. In fact, we are unable to utilise the full number of rakes that we have, due to low demand,” the official claimed.

The official pointed out that the demand for rakes for loading of coal in 2015-16 has been quite low in general and whatever has been produced by CIL, IR has been able to carry it too.

“At present, demand for coal from the power sector is not much because it is flooded with coal and carrying a stock of about 38 million tons (mt), which is rising daily. Unlike in the past, when CIL and the power plants constantly sought a larger number of rakes from us, today, the only call we get is to not demand rakes!” the official said.

Power plants, especially those in northern India, are saying they have been ruined because of excess supply of coal as they do not have space to keep the coal, the official said, adding, “Things have really changed over the last one year.”