Coal news and updates

CMPDI drills 4 lakh metres in first half

October 14: Exploration drilling by the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) continues to face obstacles as the agency ended up with total drilling volumes of around 400,000 metres during the first six months (April-September) of 2014-15, which is quite below target.

“We have been able to drill around 400,000 metres in the first half (of the current year). This includes both departmental and outsourced drilling activities,” CMPDI sources told ICMW.

While departmental drilling was around 96-97% of the target, outsourced drilling faced severe hurdles due to lack of statutory clearances, the sources said.

Given the first-half performance, CMPDI is likely to exceed last year’s drilling performance but may miss the annual target of 12 lakh metres in 2014-15 by a wide margin.

The Coal India Ltd (CIL) subsidiary had achieved an all-time high drilling of 6.97 lakh metres, against a target of 8 lakh metres, in 2013-14. This included 3.25 lakh metres of departmental drilling and another 2.72 lakh metres of outsourced drilling.