Logistics of Transporting Coal in India: Challenges and Opportunities
India has the fifth largest coal reserves in the world. The seven main states that are home to its coal mines are Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal in the east, Madhya Pradesh in central, Telangana in the south and Maharashtra in western India. Coal is transported to almost all other parts of the country from these coal-producing states. However, the level of coal consumption is relatively low in the northern and north-eastern states as they use hydro-power to meet energy demand and moreover, they do not have a strong presence of heavy industries. Prime customers of coal are located mainly in the south due to active presence of the steel and cement manufacturing sector here and the power generators that mainly depend on coal. Unfortunately, a significant quantity of coal reserves in Odisha fail to reach their customers in the south due to lack of adequate railways infrastructure and constraints in transport capacity. Many of them end up meeting their demand through impor