Coal India to invest Rs 15,700 crore in conveyor belts for movement between mines and wagons

Kolkata: Coal India Ltd will invest Rs 15,700 crore in conveyor belts that will replace road movement between mines and wagons, the company said.
In the first phase, it will upgrade infrastructure at 35 mines, each with capacity of four million tonnes per annum (MTPA) or more at six subsidiaries of the company. This involved capital expenditure (capex) of about Rs 12,300 crore and total capacity of 406 MTPA. Phase-2 includes 14 projects in which four subsidiaries will spend Rs 3,400 crore for total capacity of 100.5 MTPA.

“Multiple advantages include faster loading, easing load on road networks, savings on diesel costs, cleaner environment and stoppage of possible pilferage. This will be a tipping point in our first mile coal transportation,” said a senior CIL executive.

Coal will be loaded directly onto wagons from silos, eliminating manual loading through pay loaders, which is generally prone to overloading or under loading, the company said.

“Improved computer aided loading will be faster than the current system and bring down wagon idling. Wagon cycle time will be reduced by a few hours increasing availability," he said.

Phase-1 is already underway with two projects of combined capacity of 26 MTPY made operational this year and seven projects of 91 MTPY under construction. Tenders were recently floated for eight projects of 76 MTPY capacity. Tenders for remaining 18 will be issued before September 30, Coal India said in the statement.

The company already transports 151 MTPY of coal through mechanised system and loads through coal handling plants and silos from 19 projects.