Coal news and updates

Limited number of rakes hit despatches in Oct: CIL

December 1: Despite receiving a slightly higher number of rakes, despatches of coal during October were below expectations as the additional number of rakes could not be provided by Railways, a top official from Coal India Ltd (CIL) said.

“In despatches (in October), there were issues related to the supply of rakes and transportation of coal from mines to the loading points. However, the supply of rakes had improved as compared to the previous few months,” CIL’s Director (Marketing) B K Saxena told ICMW.

He, however, said the rakes availability in October was better, at more than 200 per day, compared to last October’s availability.

“If the number of rakes supplied improves, we can definitely increase our despatches. We are right now (as on November 27) getting an average 207 rakes per day, but can load up to 225-230 per day,” Saxena said.

“Overall, rakes availability was better but still some more could have been loaded,” he added.

“Since production is picking up, rakes supply should also improve to match the production and off-take targets,” the director (marketing) said.

Saxena also feels loading issues at Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) were also responsible for lower-than-expected despatches in October.

There was an occasional transportation issue in some of the areas of MCL - like Basundhara - and there were loading issues in Block-III and Block-IV, he said, adding, contractual loading at these mines (Blocks –III and IV) were closed and only departmental loading took place which affected overall loading, he said.

Asked whether more than loading and transportation, it was the issue of left behind (LB) rakes which has emerged as the major problem in the company, Saxena said, “Yes. We see this problem in a few areas, but that is mainly in respect of certain old sidings where loading time is more and where detention of rakes is involved. But that is not very remarkable.”

In some mines of BCCL and CCL, these things are going on primarily because at some places, the siding is not that big or is half rake siding, he said.

LB also happens because there are bunkers in the old mines which have a very low loading capacity and infrastructure is limited to that extent.