Operationalise additional blocks soon or return them: Government to Coal India

Recently, the government had enquired about the operational status of the 110 coal blocks allotted to them and whether extraction from these coal blocks is techno-economically feasible.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

NEW DELHI: State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL), which has been in the bad books of the government for a while, now due to its poor performance has been pulled up once again for its progress of development of the additional coal blocks allotted to them.

Recently, the government had enquired about the operational status of the 110 coal blocks allotted to them and whether extraction from these coal blocks is techno-economically feasible. To this, the government was told that of the 110 additional CIL blocks, 50 were explored, 41 were under exploration and balance 19 were partly or regionally explored.

Further, project reports of 25 blocks out of the total blocks explored have been prepared, according to a senior coal ministry official. Soon after, the coal ministry “emphasised on quick operationalisation of all of these blocks, or may otherwise return them to the Ministry of Coal for their re-allotment or auction to other agencies,” the official added. 

The world’s largest coal miner, CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output, had said that it will produce 660 million tonnes (MT) of coal in this financial year.

Ratings firm ICRA, however, estimates its production is likely to fall short of its target by 55-75 MT. In September, Coal India has registered a year-on-year production fall of 23.5 per cent as operations were impacted by flooding of mines due to heavy rains and labour issues. 

The company has also decided to advance its target year for achieving an annual production capacity of one billion tonnes by four years, from its initial planning to achieve the target by 2019-20. 10 seconds,” it added. The PSU will further produce 1 billion tonnes of coal by FY2024, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi had said.

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