Coal news and updates

CIL lost 49 mtpa output on lack of evacuation facilities

August 14: Lack of rail infrastructure for evacuation had affected Coal India Ltd’s (CIL)’s production to the extent of 49 million tons per annum (mtpa), an official from the Ministry of Coal (MoC) said.

Lack of adequate rail infrastructure for evacuation of coal has been a constraint on coal production in the country, the official said.

“The Ministry of Coal has requested Railways to expedite construction of the critical rail links for coal evacuation,” the official added.

In the case of CIL, the areas where lack of coal evacuation infrastructure has been a constraint on production include Basundhara Garjanbahal of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) in Odisha and North Karanpura coalfields of Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) in Jharkhand.

At MCL, implementation of the Kulda OCP with an approved capacity of 10 mtpa and Basundhara (West) OCP with an approved capacity of 7 mtpa have been affected due to coal evacuation constraints, the official said.

Similarly, coal production in Magadh (20 mtpa) and Amrapali (12 mtpa) OCPs of North Karanpura coalfields of CCL could not be started thus far due to delay in construction of the Tori-Shivpur rail infrastructure projects.