Coal India has decided to increase investment in first-mile connectivity (FMC) projects to a total of Rs 15,700 crore, including 14 additional projects from its previous count of 35.
The company is already transporting 151 million tons (mt) of coal through a mechanized system and loads through Coal Handling Plants (CHP) and Silos from 19 projects, which will now be increased by 557 mt by 2023-24 through Phase-1 projects. Phase 2 projects will begin to contribute once the finalization formalities have been completed.
Under Phase I of the project, the state-owned mining company closed 35 projects, each of which had a capacity of 4 mt from six of its subsidiaries with a capital of Rs 12,300 crore. The combined capacity of the project is 406 mt.
As part of the phase 2 project, 14 additional projects have been identified which will involve an investment of Rs 3,400 crore with a capacity to handle 100.5 mt of coal.
Of the 14 Phase II projects, Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) accounts for five with an annual capacity of 62.5 million tonnes. Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd has a single project capacity of 20 million tons per year. Eastern Coalfields Ltd has seven projects and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd has one project with a capacity of 14 million tons per year and four million tons per year.
FMC is the transport of coal from pitheads to dispatch points. The aim of this move is to replace the existing road transport between the two points and to switch to a seamless mechanized transport of coal through conveyor belts, which is a covered system for the movement of coal to reduce dust pollution. It will also have the added benefit of computer-aided loading of rail wagons.
As a corollary, the Maharatna company will set up CHPs with Silos with Rapid Loading Systems, which will have advantages such as crushing, sizing of coal, faster and better-quality coal loading with the advantage of the precise pre-weighted quantity of coal being loaded.
“This will be a tipping point in our coal transportation in the first mile. The multiple advantages include easing the load on road networks, saving on diesel costs, cleaner environment and stoppage of possible pilferage. Another advantage is quicker computer aided loading of wagons”, said a senior executive of the company.
Tenders for these different projects will be floated from August this year to the next two years.
According to the company, since coal is loaded directly into the Silos wagons, it eliminates manual loading by means of payloaders which are generally prone to overloading or under loading of wagons.
Another concern is the susceptibility of extraneous material being loaded through payloaders leading to quality issues.
