Team News Riveting
State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) is taking a big leap forward to translate Atmanirbhar Abhiyan into action by reducing the country’s dependency on coal import.
Country’s largest coal producing company had set a target to replace 115 million tonne (MT) of imported coal with domestic supply in the current fiscal. An import substitution plan had been chalked out by the company setting target for its entities.
Under the plan, a target of 25 MT each had been set for South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL). While Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) would provide 20 MT, Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) would share 15 MT each.
The CIL had set a target of 10 MT for Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) and 5 MT for Bharat coking coal limited (BCCL).
“The CIL has taken innovative ways to curb coal imports, such as signing special MoUs, identifying customers from non-regulated sectors and several other initiatives to boost coal availability in the country,” coal minister Pralhad Joshi said. CIL has also identified domestic coal-based power plants.
So far, the CIL has replaced 38 MT of imported coal. The company is inking a special Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for coal supply with power plants importing coal. It had also introduced a special spot e-auction scheme for importers.
The CIL had announced investment of Rs 1.22 lakh crore for 500 projects as it envisaged a target of 1 billion tonnes of coal output by 2023-24.
Similarly, to raise coal output and reduce import dependency of coal, CIL has identified a total of 15 greenfield (new) projects to operate through the mine developer and operator mode.
It would entail a total investment plan of about Rs 34,600 crore, of which likely investment ending 2023-24 pegged at about Rs 17,000 crore.
