Team News Riveting
Kolkata, November 16
State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) had taken a big leap forward in its efforts for efficient and environment friendly mechanized coal transportation in its First Mile Connectivity by replacing the road movement.
Under mechanized transportation, coal would be carried through the piped conveyor belt mode promoting cleaner environment. With reduced movement of coal laden trucks on roads, it would bring down dust pollution to the comfort of people residing in the proximity of the mines.
CIL is undertaking a study through National Environmental Engineering Institute (NEERI), Kolkata particularly for assessing and quantifying benefits of environmental aspects of these projects.
Moving ahead with the plan, the country’s largest coal producer had floated tenders for all the 35 projects, of Phase-1, by September’20 as planned. First mile connectivity refers to transportation of coal from CIL’s pitheads to dispatch points.
Coal Handling Plants (CHPs) and Silos for rapid loading systems would be commissioned across six of CIL’s subsidiaries, under the tenders.
To come up by FY’24 at an estimated investment of Rs 12,500 crore, the coal handling capacity of the 35 projects would be 406 Million Tonnes per year (MT/Y). Each of these mining projects had production capacity of 4 MT/Y and above. The expenditure would be met out of CIL’s capital expenditure.
CHPs and Silos will have benefits like crushing and sizing of coal and speedy computerized loading. Another upside is that with the reduced manual intervention, precise pre-weighed quantity of coal can be loaded. It also spurs loading of better quality coal.
“Improved loading time will bring down the wagon idling thus increasing their availability. Easing the load on road networks induces savings on diesel as well apart from positive environmental considerations. It will be an all-round win-win situation for the company, railways, consumers and villagers in the proximity of the mines,” said a senior executive of the company.
Currently, CIL spends around Rs. 3,400 crore on coal transportation costs which could be brought down substantially with the introduction of mechanized coal transport in the first mile. CIL also expects more than12 per cent internal rate of return once it switches over to the mechanized transport means.
Already, mechanized conveyor system and computerized loading is operational in 19 projects of CIL having 151 MT/Y capacity. With the commissioning of the 35 Projects it would be spiked up by an additional 406 MTs, making it a total of 557 MT/Y by 2023-24 giving fillip to CIL’s efforts in quality and quantity loading.
Of the 35 projects, SECL (136 MT/Y), MCL (126 MT/Y) and NCL (63 MT/Y) account for 9 each. CCL (46 MT/Y) with 4 projects, ECL, 3 with (27 MT/Y) and WCL (8 MT/Y) with a solitary project add up to the rest.
