Coal news and updates

Govt bullish on Coal India, aims to ramp up production to 1bn tn by 2019

With the Government having finalised the methodology for e-auction of coal blocks and planning to bid them out before the end of the current fiscal, it is of the view that that once this is done, within the next five years Coal India Ltd (CIL) will be in a position to ramp up its production to 1 billion tonnes.

This, according to top Government sources, would be possible due to the fact that the Maharatna company - which had more than 200 mines, where work could not be started due to the various reasons - will now be able to commence production in around 50 to 100 such reserves once the environmental clearances are granted and better technology to mine coal are introduced in it.

In fact sources further pointed out that efforts are also on to ensure that NTPC by 2019 can indulge in its own mining of coal so that it does not have to depend on CIL’s shipments for generating power.

They added that once modern evacuation technology is introduced and environmental clearances come through, the annual production of CIL could improve by another 100 million tonnes to 200 million tonnes. In 2013-14, CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production, had produced 462 million tonnes of coal and missed the target of 482 million tonnes.

Sources said that the oft-repeated term of restructuring of CIL has created several misconceptions like freeing all its eight subsidiaries and making them independent entities. This, they pointed out, is not the objective of Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal, and in fact the aim of the Government is to gradually ramp up CIL’s production through introduction of innovative technology and introducing safety standards in its existing mines.

Official sources said that the Government is bullish on evacuation of coal and work was on war footing on expediting construction of three critical rail infrastructure projects to lift coal. “The railway link in Chhattisgarh is on track and the government will expedite Jharkhand project after the elections are over there,” they said.

With lack of transport infrastructure hampering coal production, the Government had earlier said it had brought on track one of the three critical rail links in Chhattisgarh and efforts were on to fast track other two in Jharkhand and Odisha.

Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier said that there is potential to add another 200 or 300 million tonnes if three critical rail links are expedited in the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha. Timelines have been drawn up and the Chhattisgarh rail link has come on track.

Meanwhile, the Coal Ministry is hopeful that the proposed auction of 204 coal blocks is likely to fetch huge revenues to the Exchequers of eastern states which have majority of the country’s coal reserves, particularly Jharkhand which will get Rs2.5-Rs3 lakh crore in the next 30 years.

Source: The Pioneer