Coal India subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) has successfully carried out the tender process for sale of three coal projects under the abandoned mines scheme. This is also the first time the company has awarded mining contracts via this route.
The process is aimed at reopening the abandoned mines after operations at these projects were discontinued mainly on account of difficult mining conditions and financial losses.
Under this exercise, BCCL has awarded mining contracts for Loyabad, PB Project Colliery and Salanpur Colliery to the successful bidders through the auction-based, revenue sharing model.
Source: Company | Quantity in mnt
These projects having combined extractable reserves of 107 million tonnes (mnt) would be developed under the mine-developer-operator (MDO) mode for a span of 25 years.
Current status
CIL subsidiaries have been floating separate tenders for various abandoned mines. So far, these subsidiaries have offered a total of 30 such mines over the two tranches of sale.
Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) provided a “stepping stone” by finalising the sale of Madhujore underground coal project, which became the first abandoned mine to be sold under this provision.
So far, eight projects have been allocated under this route. Both BCCL and ECL have finalised three tenders each. Meanwhile, a single tender was executed each by South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) and Western Coalfields Limited (WCL).
India has pushed up domestic coal production to satisfy the needs of a growing economy, due to which there is greater accountability on the part of CIL. In this regard, the development of abandoned mines provided the coal behemoth an additional avenue to augment coal production apart from, of course, the already operational mines.
Continuing the momentum, CIL has already attained its highest-ever coal production in the ongoing fiscal (FY2002-23). Till 21 March, 2023, total production has reached 673.52 mnt, as the company is racing towards the fiscal target of 700 mnt.
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