Coal India on the path of sustainable production growth and supply to power and non-power sectors

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Coal India Limited has supplied 371.8 MT of coal to power sector and 103.1 MT coal to non-power sector in 2017-18 till January, 2018, recording a growth of 6.8% in power sector & 8.8% in non-power sector dispatch, as against 348.1 MT and 94.8 MT respectively in the same period last year.

Likewise after sustained effort all time high rake loading could be achieved i.e. more than three hundred rakes a day consistently for last fifteen days during the current month.

As a result of all this a level of 14.5 MT coal stock at power house was recorded on 5th February, 2018 as compared to 8.5 MT on 30th September, 2017.

Average rake loading to the Thermal Power Plant has also increased from a level of 209.8 rake/day in October, 2017 to 226 rake/ day in February, 2018.There has been a jump of 6.53 % in power rake loading in October’17 (from 209.3 rakes per day in Oct’16 to 223 rakes per day in Oct’17) and 13.7% increase in rake loading in February ’18. (from 199.7rakes per day in Feb’17 to 227 rakes per day in Feb’18 till 6th  Feb 2018)

To boost supply to Thermal Power stations, a strategic decision has been taken to ensure coal supply from pit head to power stations located within 50 Kms. through road and the available rake from the circuit was utilised to supply distant thermal power stations. It was also decided to maximise supply to the pit head power stations through MGR route and this strategy has ensured stock level of more than twenty one days of normative stock especially in pit head power stations located in Northern Coalfields.

Coal India has huge potential to increase coal production in peak period i.e. in January, February & March of the year. In the FY 2016-17 CIL had produced 66 MT of coal  during March’17 and presently CIL is poised to surpass what was produced last year in that period. Since last one month, daily production has taken over daily despatch which means coal is added to the stock everyday and as on date, coal stock is more than 34 MT.

By the end of FY- 2016-17, the subsidiary Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) &Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) had huge coal stock to the tune of 17.6 MT & 6.2 MT respectively. As a result, from the beginning FY-2017-18 itself, the production was curtailed in these two subsidiaries and stress was given for coal despatch. Any coal stock which is more than three month old deteriorates in quality, so as a strategy the coal production was curtailed and emphasis was given on coal despatch and coal exposure.

In CCL, Tori-Shivpur railway line is to become backbone of coal evacuation from mega mines of CCL. The project was envisaged way back in 1990s but during the period 2000-2014 there was hardly any progress. The Union Minister for Railways and Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal is laying specific emphasis on monitoring this railway line and construction has picked up. The commissioning this will give a boost to the development of Mega Project like Magadh and Amrapali OCPs.

CIL has also undertaken a number of steps for improving transparency and fairness with extensive use of IT initiatives in all most all spheres of its operation thus reducing    human intervention. Steps have also been taken to promote a good culture, good governance through well laid policy and principles to improve production, productivity, offtake. Close monitoring of project implementation and capital expenditure is being done. Opening of large projects, closure of unsafe and unviable mines and improving mine geometry is being given high priority. To prevent frequent disruption of mining operations by miscreants named FIR is being lodged and damage suits have been registered in court of law against such miscreants. This has resulted in substantial reduction in disruption of mining operations.

Source: PIB