Coal news and updates

Coal India curtails washery plans

December 3: Coal India Ltd (CIL), which had planned to set up 20 washeries with total raw coal throughput of 111.10 million tons per annum (mtpa), has curtailed its plans and has now decided to set up only 16 washeries with a capacity of 92.10 mtpa due to various reasons, according to a reply by the Minister of Coal in the previous Session of Parliament.

According to the minister, CIL plans to set up 16 washeries with total raw coal throughput of 92.10 mtpa.

Asked to comment on the rejection of four projects, a CIL source said, "These are not rejections as such. Of the four projects struck off the list, two blocks were found to have had requisite quality of coal and hence these did not require beneficiation. For two others, including New Piparwar, the reserves have depleted much in those areas and there won't be much coal left to feed the new washeries."

An analysis of the names of proposed washeries mentioned by the minister in his reply reveals that from the original list, the missing names are Sonpurbazari (8 mtpa), New Piparwar (3.5 mtpa), Dhori (2.5 mtpa) and Kolarpimpri (5.0 mtpa).

While Sonpurbazari and Kolarpimpri were to be set up under the build operate and maintain (BOM) scheme, Dhori and New Piparwar were to be set up on a turnkey basis as per the original plan.

In fact, CIL's plans to set up new washeries is not progressing as per schedule due to various factors, including regulatory issues, an industry source said.

Earlier, CIL had floated global tenders for construction of 10 washeries – Sonepurbazari, Madhuband, Patherdih, Dugda, Dahibari, Ashoka, Basundhara, Jagannath, Hingula and Kusmunda. Even evaluation of Madhuband, Patherdih and Ashoka were completed and LoAs have been issued to the selected bidders.