Indian Railways and Coal: An Unsustainable Interdependency
Kamboj, Puneet; Tongia, Rahul | July 2018
Abstract
The majority of India’s coal reserves are concentrated in the eastern parts of India, while consumption of coal is scattered all across the country. Because of this uneven geographical distribution in coal supply and demand, transportation of coal plays an important role in the ecosystem. In FY 2017, the total raw coal supplied3 in India was 842 million tonnes (MT) (Ministry of Coal, 2017), of which 533 MT (Railway Board, 2018) was transported through railways. The volume of coal carried by Indian Railways (IR) was 48 per cent of its total freight in tonnes, and accounted for 45 per cent of its total freight revenue. Coal users and the railways would both collapse without the other.
More than volumes and financials, the relationship between coal and railways runs deep at an institutional level. A senior railways officer is deputed to Coal India Limited (CIL) for coordination, and CIL members work closely with the traffic division of railways. The process is relatively plan-oriented and schedules for traffic are projected a year ahead or even further. There are limited market-oriented mechanisms for allocation of transportation capacity – all end-users can ask for railways haulage as available. Any short-term shock to the system like heavy regional rains, low hydropower output, or diminished RE output during the windy season can cause an imbalance beyond the buffer capacity of the system. More importantly, even buffers, e.g., the minimum stockpiles of coal that all power plants are expected to maintain, are often not enough.
Citation
Kamboj, Puneet; Tongia, Rahul. 2018. Indian Railways and Coal: An Unsustainable Interdependency. © Brookings India. http://hdl.handle.net/11540/8571.Keywords
Household Energy Consumption
Industrial Energy Consumption
Results-Based Monitoring And Evaluation
Evaluation Techniques
Evaluation Studies
Evaluation Methods
Commercial Energy
Transport
Transportation
Demand For Transport
Road & Highway Transport
Road Transportation Systems
Transport Infrastructure
Railways
Railroads
Domestic Energy
Energy Demand
Energy Prices
Energy Pricing Policy
Energy Supply
Primary Energy Supply
Development Indicators
Social Participation
Low Income Groups
Income Generation
Newly Industrializing Countries
Land transport
Transport economics
Railways
Power resource
Electric power
Energy development
Renewable energy resource
Energy assistance
Energy tax credit
Electric power consumption
Cost effectiveness
Supply and demand
Prices
Energy resource
Energy consumption
Price Indexes
Infrastructure
Railroads
Roads
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