Coal news and updates

MCL plans silos, concrete roads to remove evacuation hurdles

September 19: Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), the second largest coal producing subsidiary of Coal India Ltd (CIL), is planning to set up at least 10 silos with conveyor belt connection from mines besides concretising existing roads in the Talcher area as part of its strategy to remove evacuation hurdles, the company’s Chairman and Managing Director N Sahay told Coal Insights on the sidelines of a programme in Kolkata.

“We will be setting up 10 silos, each with capacity of 1 million tons per annum, including three in the Talcher area, at a cost of around `2,500 crore in stages that will significantly improve our capacity for loading of coal by rail,” Sahay said.

In addition, the company plans to widen its existing road network, which is mostly in the forest areas, and will also go for new concrete roads for faster evacuation of coal by road, the CMD said.

MCL is currently facing immense problems in transportation of coal from mines to the loading points due to the limited capacity of existing roads besides regular agitation by a group of local people over several issues and the only solution is to set up silos and link up these with conveyor belts, he said.

“The first silo will be ready in Talcher area within a year and the other two will come up within two years of the first one,” he said.

He, however, said setting up the targeted silos is slightly problematic as wherever they want to locate these they need to have clear land to install the conveyor belts. If there is even one piece of land which is not clear, the silos cannot be set up and that is why the company has been forced to go slow on this, he added.

Regarding roads, he said, “The existing roads were constructed in such a way that they cannot supply more than 60 million tons of coal annually from mines to the siding, but with concretising and widening of the existing roads, our evacuation capabilities will go up significantly.”

“Tenders have already been floated for concretising of roads, which is expected to cost around Rs 500 crore. May be, within a year, we will be able to build the roads. The concretising and widening taken together is likely to cost Rs 1,000 crore,” Sahay said.

The company also expects that its long pending plan of setting up a 52 kilometre railway track in Vasundhara would be completed soon as the work has already started on the first stretch of zero to 24 kilometre.

Meanwhile, Sahay expects that the Railways will commission a mini-bulk loading facility at Talcher within October this year that will allow loading of 60-65 rakes per day.

“I have been talking to the general manager of the Railways and he said that the mini-bulk would be ready in October. It is a challenge right now as to how to supply 60 rakes of coal every day to the work haul or siding where loading will be done,” the CMD said.

“So far as the railway project in Vasundhara is concerned, work is on for a 24-kilometres stretch, but the problem is with the balance stretch at is all in the forest area. However, recently, we have been told that Stage I forest clearance has been achieved for this. Once the Stage II clearance comes through, the railways will be able to complete the project, which was scheduled to be completed in 2009 itself,” he added.

“The rail line in Vasundhara is expected to cost us Rs 1,000 crore. We had initially sanctioned Rs 400 crore for the project, but it was raised to Rs 700 crore and now we have been told by the Railways that it will cost Rs 1,000 crore,” Sahay said, adding, “We have requested the Railways to set it up fast as we will be able to transport about 50 million tons of coal annually through this line.”

To a query, Sahay said, the company is investing about Rs 1,000-1,200 crore per year at present, including about Rs 500 crore as capital investment and on MDOs.