Need more evacuation facilities before output hike: CIL

The minister is concerned that inadequate production from CIL has led to rising concerns among the coal-fired electricity generating plants.

Power and coal minister Piyush Goyal’s plan to ramp up Coal India’s output by an additional 150 million tonne of fuel over the next 12-months could face trouble with the PSU’s top brass having conveyed to him that in the absence of adequate evacuation facilities, increasing production would be of little consequence.

Immediately after taking charge, Goyal had asked the chiefs of Coal India Ltd and its seven subsidiaries to “immediately submit an action plan” suggesting ways to archive this additional output. In response, the coal firm has told the minister that in the absence of adequate evacuation mechanism, they had to “shelve plans to open some of the virgin coalfields.”

The minister is concerned that inadequate production from CIL has led to rising concerns among the coal-fired electricity generating plants and 43 of them are already reeling under critical coal stock position. Moreover, over the last 40 years, CIL has registered only 4.6 per cent compounded annual growth in its output by reaching a production level of 462.22 MT in 2013-14 from a level of 75 MT in 1975-76.

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Chairing a review meeting of CIL’s top brass including the CMDs of its seven subsidiaries on June 19 at Kolkata, the minister had asked them to furnish figures of last ten years for underground and opencast mines highlighting production, manpower and output per man-shift.

While the focus should be on enhancing the output, CIL was also asked to seek help from the Central Electricity Authority to ascertain the actual requirement from the existing coal-fired plants to meet their production needs.

“He directed that CIL and its subsidiaries should submit an immediate action plan for enhancing output by 150 MT within one year (by June 2015) for which he assured to extend all support at the government level,” an official who attended the meeting told The Indian Express. Goyal also suggested that an “alternate action plan” should be expressly prepared projecting year-on-year basis exploring ways to meet the growing demand for coal.

But the CMDs contended that in the absence of adequate evacuation system, they had to shelve plans to open some of the virgin coalfields.