Comments
Coal India Ltd, which came under attack for falling output from its mines, has decided to modernise its existing machineries. It is also looking at outsourcing its greenfield open-cast mines and washeries to experienced private players to achieve the 12th Plan production targets.
“Opening more underground (UG) mines is also one option, but increased mechanisation in the existing mines is the answer for ramping up production through UG mines. We are going to step up UG production in the years to come,” Coal India Chairman and Managing Director, S. Narsing Rao, told Business Line .
“For augmentation of underground production, manual mines are being converted to semi-mechanised board and pillar mining with load haul dumper and side discharge loader (machines used in mines) and fully-mechanised mass production technology with continuous miner and power support longwall in phases,” Rao explained.
However, Coal India’s overall (underground as well as open-cast mines) offtake increased by 5.4 per cent at 181.85 million tonnes (mt) during April-August against 172.48 mt in the same period the previous year. The overall output was up 6.8 per cent during the period under review.
However, the major worry is dipping output from under ground mines. Coal India met 91 per cent of the under ground output target at 15.69 mt during April-August, which is 0.3 per cent down from 15.74 mt in the same period previous year.
Coal India has set a target to mine 615 mt in the terminal year of 12th Plan (2016-17), up from 436.10 mt in 2012-13.
Pending approvals
“Though a few clearances have come our way, a majority of them are yet to come,” said Rao.
At present, 178 forestry proposals are awaiting clearances. Of these, 128 are at stage I and 50 at stage II. The total area involved is 15,453 hectares at stage I level and 13,134 at stage II level. In addition, 51 environmental clearance proposals with an incremental capacity of 181 mt every year are awaiting clearances at different levels.
Total annual capacity
Coal India has identified 13 opencast greenfield projects with a total annual capacity of 65 million tonnes, which will be given to mine development operators. “Though, we should not excessively depend on such outsourcing, it helps in engaging private companies and use their efficiency to expedite and shore up coal production,” Rao said.
The Chairman also said out of the 20 new washeries with capacity of 111 mt annually identified in the first phase, four of them, accounting for 22.5 mt of annual capacity, have been finalised.
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.