The Federal Coal Ministry said the state-run Coal India, which is responsible for 80 percent of India’s coal production, increased its production by 27.2 percent in April.
The government said the federal government-run Indian Railways had canceled the flights of 753 passenger trains.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that India had urged its states to step up coal imports for the next three years to increase stocks and meet demand, which highlights the severity of the crisis.
Coal stocks are at their lowest pre-summer levels in at least nine years. And the authorities are recording the increase in demand for electricity at the fastest pace in nearly four decades.
The government said it had “decided to cancel… passenger trains to prioritize the movement of coal trains across the country to meet the shortage of vital product in thermal power plants.”
The government did not say when the suspension of passenger trains would end, nor how passengers would act in their absence.
Coal accounts for 75 percent of India’s power generation, and power plants consume more than three-quarters of the more than one billion tons of coal used annually.
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