Coal India energises output by 8.8% in April-November
BY PTI3 Dec 2015 1:00 AM GMT
PTI3 Dec 2015 1:00 AM GMT
Coal India’s production jumped 8.8 per cent to 321.38 mt during April-November period of the current fiscal, while off-take soared by 9.8 per cent.
Coal India (CIL) produced 295.40 million tonnes during the same period last year, a company official said.
The impetus by the country’s largest coal producer on off-take also yielded result as the volume growth during the period was at 30.44 million tonnes.
Coal off-take was 341.13 mt during the said period as compared to 310.70 mt in the same period of 2014-15, a growth of 9.8 per cent.
Production during the month of November was 47.47 mt, up 6.79 per cent over the corresponding month of 2014-15. While, offtake jumped to 45.33 million tonne, a growth of 9 per cent over November, last year.
“After steadying the growth in the twin performance parameters of production and off-take, our aim is to supply quality coal to our consumers. Sizing, washing and grade matching our coal supply are primary tasks before us,” the official said. Coal stock inventory at coal fired power utilities in the country is also at comfortable levels.
As of November, there is not a single power utility in the country at super critical level and only one at critical level, with coal stocks at thermal power stations at a comfortable level of about 27 mt which is 21 days of stock.
The average coal stock during the comparative period of last year was 7 days with 50 power utilities at critical level of which 30 were in super critical stock level. Meanwhile, to improve the quality of coal, CIL will set up 15 new washeries for both coking and non-coking categories and three are likely to be commissioned next year, the government has said.
“Coal India Ltd (CIL) has planned to set up 15 new washeries... Tenders have so far been invited for 12 washeries, including 6 non-coking coal washeries,” Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
The government had earlier said that the challenge was not quantity but quality of the fossil fuel. The three washeries likely to be commissioned next year are located at Madhuband, Patherdih and Dahibari in Jharkhand.
“Washeries have been planned as per the estimated time schedule given subject to obtaining land, forest clearance and environment clearance as required,” Goyal said.
Of the 15 new coal washeries, 9 are non-coking of a capacity of 94 million tonnes (mt) per year) and six are coking washeries of capacity of 18.6 mt per year, he said.
“The status of implementation is regularly reviewed at the subsidiary level, CIL level as well as at the Ministry level,” the minister said.
Coal washing is a process of separation mainly based on difference in specific gravity of coal and associated impurities like shale, sand and stones to get relatively pure marketable coal without changing its physical properties.
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