New Delhi, July 22 -- Coal stocks at India's thermal power plants are declining amid surging power demand and monsoon-driven production and transportation disruptions, according to data from the National Power Portal.

Power plants had about 40.7 million tonnes (mt) of coal as of 20 July, adequate for about 13 days of operations as peak power demand neared 270 gigawatts (GW) on 17 July.

This compares with 19 days in May, when coal inventory was around 53 million tonnes (mt) and power demand hit a record 270.8GW.

However, while power demand eased to 250GW by 21 July, the energy shortage-resulting in power cuts and load shedding-worsened over the preceding days, reaching 23 million units on 19 July.

The shortage is typically in the singl...