Owing to growing concerns of a looming power crisis in India, the coal ministry of India on October 10 issued a press release stating that ample coal is available in the country to meet the demand of power plants and that any fear of disruption of power supply is misplaced. It further revealed that the Coal India Limited (CIL) has more than 400 lakh tonnes at its end, which is being supplied to the power plants.

However, according to the Central Electricity Authority of India, as on October 13, of the total 135 plants which use coal for power generation, 112 plants were with critical or supercritical stock, that is stocks left for less than five to seven days. On October 1, there were 104 plants under the same classification. Furthermore, it has been reported that Maharashtra and Punjab have shut down 13 and three power plants respectively, whereas states like Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Bihar have been facing power cuts lasting for about 14 hours.