CIL set to reach 1 BT production target by 2020

The Dollar Business Bureau As a way to boost the country’s coal production, the Coal India Limited (CIL) on Friday unveiled its roadmap of strategies to be adopted in order to attain the 1 Billion Tonne (BT) coal production mark by 2019-20. While the country’s projections towards coal production stands at around 1,200 MTs by 2019-20 at an envisaged growth rate of 7%, CIL is set to reach 1 BT target of which, 908 MTs is the expected contribution from the identified projects. The announcement to this effect was made by Bhattacharya, CMD , Coal India Ltd, at a media briefing on Friday. He further said that the identification of projects for this purpose is also underway, adding that the two CIL subsidiaries Sambalpur based Mahanadi Coalfields Limited and the Bilaspur based South Eastern Coalfields Limited are expected to play a pivotal role. In CIL’s quest of attaining 1 BT production, the Sambalpur and the Bilaspur based subsidiaries are expected to contribute upto 250 MTs and 240 MTs respectively, he added. Bhattacharya further pointed out that the key issues that the coal miner is basically relying on are timely completion of three critical railway lines and timely land acquisition and green clearances. In order to overcome the coal evacuation issues, the CIL had decided to rely upon 2000 railway wagons from its own resource for which a specific fund had been earmarked. The coordination with Railways for implementation has already been initiated, he added. More number of Special Purpose Vehicles are on immediate anvil towards grounding railways infrastructure with Railways and concerned State government participations. While stating that there is a need for inclusion of technology in the coal production, the CMD said that the strategies for future include Technology Upgradation in Opencast Mines with high capacity equipment, Operator independent Truck Dispatch System, Vehicle tracking system using GPS/GPRS, Coal Handling Plants (CHPs) and SILOS for Faster Loading and monitoring using Laser Scanners, among others. According to the statistics, the Coal India’s April-January output rose to 6 %, as it opened new mines and got environmental clearances to raise output from operating mines. According to a Indian Chamber of Commerce(ICC) report, the data proved by CIL says that 179 forestry proposals are awaiting clearances and if all approvals are secured on time, it can more than double its output to 1,132 MT, given that mines start production from 2016-17.  

This article was published on February 20, 2015.