Lack of rail link hampers Coal India's supply

New Delhi: State-owned CIL today said it is unable to tap the potential for supplying 300 million tonnes of additional coal due to the absence of critical rail links for lifting the dry-fuel. “We have a potential to supply 300 MT of additional coal from some of our collieries but we lack crucial rail infrastructure for transporting it,” Coal India Ltd chairman and managing director S Narsing Rao told PTI.[caption id=“attachment_1409787” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Transportation problem for Coal India. Reuters[/caption] “Under the circumstances, we are in a position to increase our annual growth to only 30 MT for the next few years,” he said. If three critical rail links are fast-tracked, the company will ensure 300 MT additional supply to consumers who are facing fuel shortages, he said. Three rail corridors are: Tori-Shivpuri-Kathotia in North Karanpura, Jharkhand; Bhupdeopur-Korichhaapar to Mand Raigadh mines in Chhattisgarh and Barpali-Jharsuguda in IB Valley, Odisha, which are under different phases of development. The CIL chief’s remarks come at a time when a high-level Inter-Ministerial Committee constituted by the Prime Minister’s Office is addressing the issue of faster implementation of critical railway projects in potential coalfields. The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure had also agreed to monitor the progress of the three rail links critical for transporting coal from CIL mines located in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Sources said that difficulties being faced in executing these three projects, entailing Rs 7,500 crore expenditure, relate to forestry and environment clearances besides land acquisition, rehabilitation/resettlement as well as law and order problems. The government had earlier said that two rail projects, including Tori-Shivpur, are likely to be completed by the end of 2017 and will facilitate coal evacuation besides pushing up production of the fuel. The demand-supply gap of coal is likely to widen to 185.5 MT in 2016-17. The country had to import a record 135 MT coal last year to meet domestic requirement. Battling low production, CIL has earmarked Rs 24,500 crore capital expenditure over the next few years mainly to boost capacity and is also looking at spending another Rs 14,500 crore to augment rail infrastructure. CIL had said last month that it may miss the production target of 482 million tonnes (MT) for the 2013-14 fiscal, ending 31 March, by around 5 MT. CIL, which accounts for over 80 percent of the domestic production, contributed 452.5 MT of coal in 2012-13 as against the target of 464 MT. PTI