Coal news and updates

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked ministries of coal, railways, shipping and power to work out a plan for better movement of coal though coastal and inland waterways and present the policy on the same to the cabinet, a source close to the development told ET. "For improving tonnage of coastal and inland shipping, joint action plan on possible coal movement projects should be worked out. Further the multimodal incentive scheme should be brought before the cabinet," as per the minutes of a recent review meeting chaired by the PM

At present, domestic coal is transported mostly via road and railways, which not only increases cost but also adds to pollution. "Through the multimodal incentive scheme or using various modes of coal transportation, the government looks to save around Rs40,000 crore in the next five years," according to an official in government think tank NITI Aayog. The official further said transportation through ships would facilitate large quantities of coal to be moved at once resulting in lower cost of transportation. Currently, coal evacuation is a big concern for Coal India and power companies due to lack of proper infrastructure. While many power companies build roads from mines to their plants, fuel linkages which are far from the plant site face issues. "There aren't many railway lines for proper evacuation of coal and also rakes are limited. We need multimodal transportation of coal," an industry official said. Following a push from the government, national miner Coal India's production has jumped manifolds. However, due to lack of demand and proper evacuation infrastructure, around 1 million tonne of coal has accumulated in the pit heads.