What is the latest situation of coal supply to major power plants in India?

While the situation of coal shortage is yet to come under control, there is surely some improvement visible in the coal situation, thanks to the series of tough measures taken by the Indian government. For example, the coal dispatches to the power generation sector in the month of Oct-21 increased by a steep 27.13% to 59.73 MT. This would substantially improve the coal inventories as a percentage of daily usage of coal.

The thrust of the government on supporting the smaller plants has also worked. These measures were necessitated on the back of spurt in power demand and an unprecedented 4-fold increase in import prices of coal from majors like Australia and Indonesia. Power sector got into a crisis with inventory down to just 2-3 days in most cases. This initiative also meant cuts to other coal consumers like 29.2% cut for sponge iron and 33% to cement.