CIL draws new roadmap to achieve 1 bn tonne coal output

Public sector behemoth Coal India Limited (CIL) is banking on quicker land acquisition and environmental clearances, along with better technology and fasttracking of projects for new railway lines, under the Narendra Modi government to achieve the one billion tonne coal production target by 2019-20.

Chalking out the roadmap for achieving the ambitious target, Coal India CMD S Bhattacharya said that the country's demand for coal was expected to touch 1.2 billion tonnes by 2019-20 at the envisaged growth rate of seven per cent.

CIL is expected to chip in with an output of one billion tonnes of which, 908 million tonnes is the expected contribution from projects which are being identified.

CIL accounts for 80 per cent of the total coal produced in the country, but has missed its output target of 482 million tonnes in the last fiscal.

It was able to produce only 462 million tonnes, leading to an increased dependence on costly imports.

Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal has got things moving after the policy paralysis of the UPA government led to a slowing down of the mining sector.

He has now set an ambitious target to more than double the coal giant's output by 2019-20.

Goyal pointed out that the coal mining giant is relying on timely completion of three critical railway lines and timely land acquisition and green clearances to achieve this target.

Bhattacharya said that important steps that have been initiated include the creation of the Coal Project Monitoring Group (CPMG) portal for regular monitoring of projectrelated issues with different ministries and state authorities.

To overcome the hurdle of coal evacuation, CIL had decided to purchase 2,000 railway wagons from its own kitty for which a specific fund has been earmarked.

The coordination with the Railways for implementation has already been initiated. In a move to synergise its efforts, SECL already has two Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) with state governments to develop rail network, including last-mile connectivity involving the Railways.

"More SPVS are on the anvil to set up railway infrastructure with the Railways and concerned state government participations", Bhattacharya added.

He said the strategies for the future include technology upgradation in opencast mines with high capacity equipment, operator independent truck dispatch system, vehicle-tracking system using GPS, coal handling plants and silos for faster loading and monitoring using laser scanners.