Why coal shortage despite improved production in coal-dependant India?

The present crisis at India's power plants originated in August and September 2021. Power demands in these two months went up by 17 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.

India produced 12 per cent more coal in the first half of the current financial year, compared to the same period last year. The 2021 output is nearly six per cent more than the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20.

Besides, coal dispatches between April-September this year went up 20 per cent more than the corresponding period of 2020, and 13 per cent compared to the year before that.