In a bid to meet the domestic coal requirement and curtail costlier imports, Coal India Ltd (CIL) has set its sight on completion of prospective projects which have been identified to expedite coal production.
While speaking during the parliament session, Coal Minister Mr. Pralhad Joshi informed that CIL has lined-up 15 Greenfield projects which would be operated by mine developer cum operator mode.
These projects planned for a total targeted capacity of around 158 mn t comprise of 10 open cast mines and rest 5 are underground mines.
It is pertinent to note that the company has aimed to enhance coal production from its present level of 602 mn t to 1000 mn t by FY’ 24.
Concurrent investment to boost coal supply
In view of the projected enhancement in coal production, CIL has envisaged various infrastructure projects to ensure seamless coal evacuation.
The company is investing in construction of new broad gauge rail lines and railway sidings in order to improve connectivity in major coal producing states viz. Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. At present, the government is working on 14 railway lines for increasing efficiency in coal evacuation.
Besides, in order to minimize manual intervention, First Mile Connectivity (FMC) projects are introduced which comes along with coal handling plants and silos to promote rapid coal loading. The new system also provide additional benefits like sizing of coal and computer aided loading thus reducing wagon idling and a considerable saving in loading time.
The company is planning to commission 35 FMC projects up to FY’ 24 which would increase the existing mechanized loading capacity of 151 mn t to 555.5 mn t.
Apart from setting up of new mines, the company has discontinued mining at around 50 coal projects in a phased manner during the past three fiscals, the minister informed while answering to a separate question raised in the parliament.
This comes as part of its strategy to boost domestic output by closing the mines where operations became financially unviable.
Slump in demand induced by COVID-19 has significantly affected CIL’s coal dispatch. However, there remains plenty of scope for improvement as suggested by a recent study carried out by International Energy Agency which claims that India would have the biggest share of energy demand growth at 25% by 2030.
Leave a Reply