Coal news and updates

CIL asks Railways to procure 2,000 wagons

February 19: Coal India Ltd (CIL) has informed Indian Railways to go ahead and procure 2,000 wagons or 33-34 rakes on its behalf to improve availability, a senior official of the company told ICMW.

The cost for such wagons would be borne by CIL, the official said.

In August 2014, Coal minister Piyush Goyal had announced that CIL will procure its own wagons to improve rakes availability in an attempt to achieve its despatch targets.

“We placed the order with Railways 7-10 days back,” the official said on February 19, adding, “Now Railways will procure the wagon from whatever sources it can.”

The official pointed out that in recent days the availability of rakes from Indian Railways for loading of coal has improved, but it is still below the requirement levels.

“It (rake availability) has improved, but is still lower than the requirement. We have requirement for average 236 rakes per day but at present we are getting only 218-220 rakes per day. We should get a slightly higher number,” the official said.