Indian Railways admitted that it has exhausted its rake availability capacity in a recent meeting chaired by cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba. According to the media, Coal India and the railways are operating at record levels to ensure adequate inventory build-up at power plants. G K Bansal, the railway ministry's executive director for information and publicity, said the ministry improved its waggon turn-around time (WTR) by 16% between September 2021 and February and is working to improve it even more. With a lower WTR, more wagons would be available in a shorter time. The central power generators NTPC and Damodar Valley Corp, as well as states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu, have begun to import coal. R K Singh, the power minister, urged private power plants to begin importing 4% of their coal requirements at a meeting last week to review inventory positions at power plants. However, due to high consumption as a result of increased electricity demand, coal stocks at project heads are not increasing. Due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, record imported prices of over $200 per tonne have added to the pressure, as 16 GW of imported coal-based capacity is either not operating or underutilised. According to data from the Central Electricity Authority, coal stocks were at 39% of the normative level mandated by the recently changed norms as of March 10. The new standards have been criticised by some industry observers as being too high. 81 projects, including 10 imported coal projects and 9 non-operational plants, have critical stocks of less than 25% of the normative stock. Power plants have a total coal stock of 26 million tonnes, while Coal India mines have a total coal stock of 45 million tonnes. Railways aim to induct 100,000 waggons over the next two years, with 40,000-45,000 arriving in the first year. To maintain numbers, the condemnation of older waggons based on age has been postponed. In addition to these actions, the railways have identified 66 critical and 58 supercritical capacity enhancement works, as well as 14 coal evacuation projects, all of which are being closely monitored for completion by the end of the year. Image Source Also read: Indian Railways aims to achieve net-zero carbon emission by 2030