State owned coal miner-CIL is planning to open 55 new coal mines in the next five years to boost domestic coal production in the country. The information was provided by Coal Minister Mr Pralhad Joshi while replying to a question in the parliament.
Providing more insight on the detail, the coal ministry said the 55 new coal projects having capacity of 92 MnTPA would be developed along with the expansion of 193 existing projects having capacity of about 310 MTPA in next five years.
The minister also highlighted the introduction of state of the art technology to improve mining efficiency, under which 42 Cubic Meter Shovel and 240 MT Rear Dumpers were installed in Gevra, Dipka and Kusmunda coal mines.
Besides, surface miners were set-up in opencast mines to improve operational efficiency and to cater environmental needs. Notably, around 50% of the opencast coal production was attained through surface miners in FY19.
Apart from efficient coal production, CIL has been keen to step-up coal transportation to the power producers. The minister informed that for swift coal evacuation, 19 coal handling plants with silos and rapid loading system having existing capacity of 152.5 MnT were in operation.
Further in order to reduce coal imports, the ministry had taken into account source realization with part supply from higher grade coal source. In addition, more coal was offered through various types of e-auction schemes particularly special forward e-auction for power consumers, for those not having FSA with CIL.
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