Coal news and updates

CIL supplying only crushed coal from Jan: Swarup

Coal India Ltd (CIL) is supplying only crushed coal to its long-distance customers with effect from January 1, 2016, a senior government official claimed.

“Only crushed coal is going out of the coal mines, except in cases where parties do not want this,” Secretary (Coal) Anil Swarup said in Kolkata.

“We announced that from January 1, 2016 crushed coal will go out. I will request all of you to see for yourself whether crushed coal is going out or not, and my feedback is, it is going out,” Swarup stressed.

He said that once CIL’s production started increasing, the government had decided that henceforth it would look at the quality of the coal being supplied.

As part of it, the government had taken three major decisions. One of these was the decision on crushed coal. The second was to put in place a separate quality regime to prevent grade slippage and the third was to set up washeries, he said.

“Third-party sampling is already in place. All the reports will, henceforth, be uploaded on the portal. You can see what sort of coal is being provided and what is being charged. We are making it completely transparent,” the coal secretary said.

As regards the third, Swarup said, “Coal washeries cannot be set up immediately but we are on our way to setting up 15 additional washeries by October 1, 2017.”

The groundwork is being done and the coal ministry is engaging with the Ministry of Environment and Forests regarding all the clearances, he said.

“We are committed to washing the coal and our belief is that wherever it requires washing, it should be done before the same gets transported,” Swarup said.