A crisis is looming over India with the country’s coal stocks nearing a critical level . As per the data of the Ministry of Coal the country’s coal requirement for the year 2014-15 stands at 527 MiIlion Tonnes (MT) but the availability of domestic coal is only 473 MT which leaves a shortfall of 54 MT. Since the country uses coal to generate more than half of its electricity the shortfall is likely to have severe consequences. Major power plants are on the verge of shut down as Caol India Limited(CIL), the world’s largest coal miner, has failed to raise its output fast enough forcing India to import millions of tonnes of the black rock for its thermal power plants.

Coal Ministry data shows that the supply of coal to power utility sector from Coal India Limited (CIL) sources during April-June, 2014 has been 88.66 MT as against the Annual Action Plan (AAP) Target of 101.61 . In order to meet this shortfall, Power Utilities were advised to import coal. During the period April-May, 2014 power utilities have imported 7.6 MT against pro-rata target of 9.0 MT, the Ministry’s records state.

Due to insufficient coal stocks India’s biggest power producer NTPC is on the verge of shutting down its six plants that have a capacity of 17,000 MW. NTPC has informed the Coal Ministry that the plants have reached a critical level of coal that will last them only for less than two days.

Insufficient reserves are particularly problematic this year. Weak monsoon rains have limited the output from hydropower plants – which provide about a fifth of India’s energy – putting added pressure on the thermal plants to raise output. But any onset of rains would also threaten to disrupt supplies of coal from mine to power station, hitting output.