Coal news and updates

CIL to purchase 250 additional rakes

September 8: Coal India Ltd (CIL) has given an in-principle decision to purchase 250 additional rakes to increase evacuation of coal from pithead, coal and power minister Piyush Goyal said.

The in-principle approval by CIL comes at a time, when it was criticised for alleged low supply of coal.

CIL on the other hand had said that on a number of occasion, restricted availability of railway rakes had affected loading.

The proposed move will entail an investment of Rs 5,000 crore on behalf of the miner and would be aimed to supply more coal to the power plants, the minister said on September 7.

Goyal said the country is aiming to increase its coal production to 1 billion tons by 2020 and with own wagons, CIL will be able to meet keep up the tempo as it will be able to supply coal through its own wagons.

Goyal further said that in a bid to spruce up evacuation, the government is expediting build-out of three critical railway lines in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha which could potentially yield 60 million tons per annum by 2017-18 and up to 200 mt by 2021-22.