Indian Railways has cancelled dozens of passenger trains across the country to allow for coal carriages as the country battles low stocks at power plants amid blackouts and outages in many states.

Footage filmed at Dhanbad Railway Station in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand on Friday (April 29) shows carriages carrying coal.

India is facing its worst electricity shortage in years as a heatwave has hit parts of south Asia. High temperatures have forced the early closure of some schools.

Some 42 passenger trains have been cancelled across India to allow faster movement of coal carriages to tackle critically low stocks at power plants in the middle of blackouts and outages in many states.

These trains have been cancelled indefinitely, Railways officials said today, with coal stocks depleting rapidly in thermal power plants. The Railways is trying to take steps "at war-footing" to transport coal and also cut down the time it takes to move coal to power plants, officials said.

The move (to cancel trains) is temporary and passenger services will be restored as soon as the situation normalizes.