Strategy for stepping up
coal production in CIL
By –
1. A K Debnath
2. S.K. Dubey
INTRODUCTION

Pursuit of quantity & quality-wise affordable and reliable source of
energy is presenting unprecedented economic, social and
environmental challenges.

In India, coal provides about 52% of the commercial energy and
67% of the electricity generation is coal based.

Massive need for coal availability to a level of over 2 billion tonnes /
annum based on domestic quality of coal.

Availability of lesser amount of coal indigenously, forcing increasing
import of coal with time, is a matter of concern.

Burgeoning coal demand-supply gap necessitates Coal India Limited
to come up with further initiatives for stepping up coal production.

This necessities pro-active strategies for bridging the gap to the
extent possible.
PROJECTED DEMAND
Projected Coal demand in XI and XII
Particulars
Demand in Terminal year of
XI Plan i.e. 2011-12
Original Mid Term Actual
estimate Appraisal
Total
(Mt)
731.10
713.24
634.35
Projected demand
in terminal year of
XII Plan (16-17) as
per the WG for XII
Plan period (in Mt)
980.5
PROJECTED AVAILABILITY
Particulars
Production (Mt) in terminal
year of XII Plan under
‘Optimistic Scenario’
Projected coal production
(Mt)
795
o
Delivering of requisite clearances within specified time schedule
and addressing issues affecting land acquisition, R&R, law & order
and infrastructures for coal evacuation, effectively, in a time bound
manner have been spelt out as the conditions under the Optimistic
scenario for the envisaged production of 795 Mt by 2016-17.
o
Contribution from CIL in this projected production would be 615
Mt.

Customer/Sector-wise break up of assessed coal demand for 2016-17 is
indicated
Customer / sector
Demand assessed by Demand in % of
WG (Mt)
total demand
Power Utility
Power Captive incl.
fert.
682*
56.36
69.6
5.7
Cement
Sponge Iron
Others
Total non-coking
Coking
Total
47.31
50.33
77.3
913.3
67.2**
980.5
4.8
5.1
7.9
93.2
6.9
100
* Based on projection of 17th Electric Power Survey for energy requirement of 1392 BU in 2016-17 and past
trend of 70% of coal based thermal energy requirement in the total thermal energy requirement..
** Commensurate with the optimistic projection of steel production of 105 Mt in 2016-17.
COAL AVAILABILITY
Coal Production during the X and XI plan periods Coal Producers
Actual production during X
plan
Actual production during XI
plan
2002-03
2006-07
2007-08
2011-12
CIL
290.69
360.91
379.46
435.83
SCCL
33.23
37.71
40.60
52.21
Other PSUs
1.51
1.77
2.11
2.71
Total PSUs
325.43
400.39
422.17
490.75
Tata Steel & Captive Blocks
11.44
24.65
28.38
41.98
Meghalaya
4.40
5.79
6.54
7.21
Total Others
15.84
30.44
34.92
49.19
ALL INDIA
341.27
430.83
457.08
539.94
UG
63.16
57.75
58.90
51.83
OC
278.11
373.08
398.18
488.11
Total
341.27
430.83
457.08
539.94
Coking
30.19
32.08
34.46
51.65
Non-Coking
311.08
398.75
422.63
488.29
TOTAL
341.27
430.83
457.08
539.94
CAGR 5.6% in X Plan period
CAGR 4.35% in XI Plan period
PROJECTED DEMAND-AVAILABILITY GAP FOR COAL
Coal demand & availability gap over plan periods
Coal Demand vs Availability from indigenous
sources
Figures in Mt
1200
980.5
1000
800
600
795
550
634.35
455
Demand
535.42
Availability
400
200
95
185.5
98.93
Gap
0
2006-07
2011-12
2016-17
Terminal years of Plan period
Production under the ‘Optimistic scenario’ would result in a demandindigenous availability gap of about 185 Mt which may rise to a level of
about 265 Mt in the Business As Usual scenario.
STRATEGY FOR STEPPING UP COAL PRODUCTION IN CIL

Production achievement by CIL during X Plan was at a CAGR of
5.6 % which came down to 4.4 % during XI Plan.

Enhancement of coal production from a level of about 435 Mt
during 2011-12 to a level of 615 Mt under ‘Optimistic Scenario’ by
2016-17 would entail CAGR of 7.2%.

Moreover, achievement of 615 Mt by 2016-17 by CIL would not be
enough to limit the increasing import of coal in the country and
the country would have to resort to growing import to meet the
requirement of various consumers in the country.

Coal production can not be started without possession of land,
solving R&R problems, getting Environmental and Forestry
clearances as well as addressing the coal evacuation problems.

Additionally, issues like faster exploration requirement including
drilling capacity augmentation, enhancing pace of projectisation for
existing and new coal blocks (out of 119 nos.), emphasis on coal
production from underground mines, etc., are required to be
addressed by CIL for stepping up its production.
To restrict the import to the extent possible by augmenting the coal
production level, the strategies would involve the following steps :

OPERATIONAL INITIATIVES BY CIL

Enhancement in the pace of exploitation


The balance of regionally explored area (out of 14013 sq. km)
which is yet to be fully explored is about 6000 sq km.
This area is having a density of about 1 borehole per sq km
which is required to be raised up to about 15 to 20 boreholes
per sq km through detailed drilling for projectisation for
mining by opencast or underground methods.

The present capacity of CMPDI including the contractual agencies
carrying out drilling under its supervision is 5 lakh meter per year.
Out of this, about 3.90 lakh meter of drilling was carried out in
2011-12 in blocks of CIL.

The drilling capacity of CMPDI, including outsourced drilling, needs
to be enhanced (to over 10 lakh meter) to enable further
projectisation of coal reserves.

The present capacity of coal core analysis (CMPDI & CIMFR) is
60000 m of core length which needs to be enhanced to about 1.5
lakh m by 2015-16.

The estimated meterage present in blocks for bidding, additional
blocks allowed to be retained by CIL, de-allocated blocks offered to
CIL, XII Plan projects of CIL, CIL Blocks and non-CIL blocks
identified on the basis of the available potential blocks, including
Non-CIL blocks are:
S. No
Type of blocks
No. of
blocks
Estimated
Meterage
(lakh meter)
1.0
Blocks for bidding
37
13.70
2.0
Non-CIL blocks
68
19.03
3.0
Addl. CIL Blocks allowed to be
retained by CIL
116
24.25
4.0
De-allocated blocks offered to CIL
2
0.38
5.0
XII Plan Projects
13
1.16
6.0
CIL Blocks
79
10.79
315
69.31
Total
To sustain the programme of detailed exploration beyond XII Plan at
an enhanced rate of drilling of over 10 lakh meter per annum will
need the commensurate enhancement in the efforts on
Regional/Promotional exploration.

Faster Projectisation of New Blocks




Necessity of maximizing production availability from the existing
coal blocks of CIL, from where 615 Mt of coal production has
been envisaged by 2016-17.
Additional blocks including the 119 nos. allowed to be retained by
CIL recently, should be developed at the earliest as soon as the
exploration in such blocks are over.
These 119 blocks ( 45 OC + 57 UG & 17 mixed) have been
tentatively estimated for a total capacity of about 240 Mty.
Early development of these blocks will provide CIL a comfort in
meeting the demand-supply gap.


Development of Project through MDO (Mine Development
Operator) Route
 Considering the delay in land acquisition, law and order and
other problems associated with open cast project development,
wider engagement of the Development Operators for open cast
mines/projects needs to be considered
 This result in crashing the activities of mine development and
early realisation of the production from such mines.
Underground Mine Capacity Enhancement
Status of initiatives taken by CIL for mechanisation and production
enhancement efforts in the recent past are Indicated below:
1. Continuous Miners (CMs) have been presently deployed 7
mines of CIL with a total capacity of 2.78 Mty as indicated
below :
Subsidiary No of
Company mines
Name of the mines, CM Capacity (Mty)
ECL
WCL
2
2
Jhanjra (0.36) and Sarpi (0.46)
Tandsi(0.51)*
SECL
4
NCPH – Chirimiri(0.43), Sheetal Dhara –
Kurja(0.36), Pinoura (0.48)and Rani –
Atari(0.18)
Total CIL
7
Total Planned Capacity: 2.78 Mty
2. At present, two type of the bidding routes, namely “Risk-gain
sharing basis” and “Hiring basis” are being followed for
deployment of CMs.
3. Excepting Pinuara and Rani Atari in SECL, all other
Continuous Miners have been deployed on the basis of “Riskgain sharing basis”.
4. Also, 19 Underground Projects with Continuous Miner Technology
with a total capacity of 11.69 Mty have been approved as listed below :
Subsidiary
Company
No. of
Mines
Name of Mines (Capacity, Mty)
ECL
2
Jhanjra 2nd CM(0.51); Kottadih(0.42)
BCCL
1
Block-II(0.45)
CCL
3
Chiri-Benti(0.84); Parej East(0.51); PiparwarMangardaha(0.61)
WCL
5
Dhankasa(0.91), Jamunia(0.45), Saoner-I(0.45),
Tawa-II(0.36) & Gandhigram(0.78)
SECL
5
Churcha Re-organisation(1.02), Khairaha(0.49),
Haldibari(0.30), Ketki(0.30) & Vijay
(West)(0.30)
MCL
3
Talcher (West)(1.42), Natraj(1.15); Hirakhand
Bundia Incline(0.42)
Total CIL
19
Total Planned Capacity: 11.69 Mty
5. Identified list of mines/ projects where Continuous Miner can be deployed on
hiring basis (potential blocks but further study is needed prior to finalisation) are Subsidiary
Company
No. of possible CMs
Name of Mines (Capacity, Mty)
ECL
2
Rangamati ‘B’ ( Kanchanpur Sector)
BCCL
4
Godhar ( Kusunda Area), AKW MC (Katras Area),
Phularitand ( Barora Area) & Akash Kinari
(Gobindpur Area)
CCL
2
Kalyani (Dhori Area)
Mandu ( Hazaribag Area)
Total CIL
8
6. Work orders have already been issued to MDOs to operate five mines (Jhanjra in ECL,
Kapuria, Moonidih (both XV & XVI seam), and Muraidih in BCCL) by longwall
technology. Likely capacity addition from these mines will be around 8.9 Mty.
Several such mines are in pipe line
Sub. Company
Name of the Mines
Capacity (Mty)
BCCL
Moonidih XVI
0.7
BCCL
Moonidih XV
2.5
BCCL
Kapuria
2.0
BCCL
Muraidih
2.0
ECL
Jhanjra
1.7
Total
8.9
7. Identifying suitable prospective sites for application of Highwall
Mining which is a mining method to extract coal from an exposed
coal seam at the terminating line of an opencast mine.
At present, this technology has been implemented in Sharda
Opencast project of SECL.
8. Apart from the successful implementation of the aforesaid actions by
CIL, a deeper assessment needs to be made in finalisation of the
strategies which may include the following points –
 Planning of all new mines with higher degree of mechanisation
wherever applicable.
 Preparation and adherence to Time-bound technology plan
including introduction of new technology to improve
productivity.
 Preparation of road map with engagement of MDOs.
 Separate cadre in CIL for Underground mining with attractive
avenues to motivate for performance.
 Preparation of Infrastructure development plan including
prioritisation of construction of rail/road/railway siding and
faster development of infrastructure for UG mines.

Enhancing Coal Evacuation Capacity Through Infrastructure
development
 Infrastructure development (rail, road & power) in coalfields,
particularly in new emerging coalfields, calls for considerable
investment.
 Is essential to augment the evacuation capacity of coal from
its existing level.
 As per the Master Plan of North Karanpura coalfield,
construction of railway lines and electric power arrangement
will require about Rs. 2500 crore of investment.
 Similarly, as per the Master Plan of Ib Valley coalfield,
establishing rail network for MCL projects will require about
Rs. 470 crores.
 Needs to be a mechanism of joint sharing of the investment
requirement in these infrastructures between CIL and the
existing and future captive producers.
 CIL can invest initially and which may be shared at later stage
by other users including captive parties.

Necessity of establishing and expanding the infrastructure facilities in new emerging
coalfields due the future production assessment from these coalfields as indicated below:
Particulars
CIL
Non-CIL / Captive
Total
NORTH KARANPURA COALFIELD
No. of blocks
26
20
46
Capacity (Mty)
110.0
97.5
207.5
Existing Production (Mty)
23.17
0
23.17
Future Production (Mty)
86.83
97.5
184.33
No. of blocks
41
23
64
Capacity (Mty)
86.0
5.0*
91.0
Existing Production (Mty)
4.44
0*
4.44
Future Production (Mty)
86.0
5.0*
91.0
No. of blocks
33
31
64
Capacity (Mty)
156.89
227.70
384.59
Existing Production (Mty)
59.74
-
59.74
Future Production (Mty)
152.32
196.56
348.88
No. of blocks
23
18
41
Capacity (Mty)
138.77
74.65
213.42
Existing Production (Mty)
44.34
0.50*
44.84
Future Production (Mty)
118.19
73.50
191.69
MAND RAIGARH COALFIELD
TALCHER COALFIELD
IB-VALLEY COALFIELD

OTHER STEPS INCLUDING POLICY INITIATIVES
BY THE GOVERNMENT
Various limiting factors, deterrent to increasing production and
severely faced by the coal sector, need to be addressed by the
Government. Government needs to take certain initiatives in this
regard. The issues are :

Labour laws
•
Coal mining sector should be allowed to have exemption
from provisions u/s 10 of Contract Labour (Regulation &
Abolition) Act 1970 (Prohibition of employment of
contract labour).

Land & R&R :
•
Land acquisition is proving to be one of the major hurdles
in starting coal mining projects and expansion of the
existing ones.
Cont.

•
It is mainly due to this reason that CIL is unable to plan
major enhancement
of coal production.
•
Shifting of people from places where land has already been
acquired is also one of the hurdles for enhancement of coal
production.
•
Actions need to be taken by the Govt. for constitution of
Task force in the concerned State Government Secretariat to
help the companies in acquisition of land.
The following may be suggested to streamline the land and R&R
problems –
• Identification of Project affected families (PAFs) at the
time of project conceptualization stage itself for timely
action.
• Identification of R&R site, providing adequate infrastructure
and suitable amenities before land acquisition.
•
Continuous dialogue with PAFs with an objective to identify their
actual requirement by involving the village panchayats and State
Govt. authorities. Accordingly the actions are to be taken.
•
Ownership verification with family tree jointly by mining
companies and state district authorities.
•
Finalization of PAFs and display of the list on the notice board
and website.
•
Categorization of PAFs as per their entitlement in terms of the
agreed policy.
Free shifting of belongings of PAFs for smooth acquisition of
land.
Maintenance of updated & correct land records by State Land &
Revenue Department.
Suitable compensation to the affected persons for ensuring
reasonable regular income for sustenance and livelihood in terms
of National Land Acquisition and R&R Bill, 2011or any other
approved policy.
•
•
•
Environment Clearance (EC) & Forest Clearance (FC)
The EC process takes about 14 months excluding the time
consumed in Public Consultation process. Main reasons for
delay in EC as observed are –


1.
2.
3.
Obtaining ToR from MOEF for each and every proposal
specially when more than 86% conditions are common for
OCP & U/G mines. Thereby leading to repeatation of the
process.
Delayed Public Hearing and issuance of PH proceedings by
SPCB. The time limit prescribed for public
consultation/hearing, including receipt of proceedings, is
although 45 days but the time taken is much more and in
some cases, it is even more than 2-3 years.
Linking of EC with FC.

Suggested Measures for Expeditious EC PROCESS:

Standard ToR for OC and UG mines should be circulated by
MoEF.

Dispensation of public hearing in case of projects already having
EC and fresh EC is required because of increase in production
only without involving any increase in land area).

Dispensation of public hearing in case of projects having only
forest land.

Dispensation of public hearing in case of UG projects as there is
negligible environment degradation.

If SBCB does not complete PH process within stipulated time,
MoEF should accept the EIA/EMP for EC. The EC may
however be accorded only after the recommendation of SPCB
thorough PH proceedings.


Delinking of EC with FC as long as no forest land is used for
mining and mining related activities.

Coalfield wise EC so that the excess production by any
project does not attract the requirement of fresh EC as long
as the combined production is within the EC capacity.
Suggested Measures for Expeditious FC :


Once the FC application is received by the State Forest
authority from the project proponent, all the deficiencies in
the application should be informed to the applicant at a
time preferably within 2-3 days. The process of the
scrutiny should be very transparent so as to avoid and
identify the delay and also to pin point the responsibility.
The deficiencies should be resolved by mutual discussion
within 15 days.
State should maintain the correct and updated record of the
forest land to avoid resubmission.

State should ensure its recommendations to MoEF in a time
bound framework as per Forest (Conservation) Rules.

After the stage -1 clearance is accorded, the proponent should be
allowed to start the activities and the forest land should be
transferred once the required payments towards NPV,
compensatory afforestation is made by the coal companies to the
concerned State Government.

Strengthening of land and R&R Department at all levels of CIL
for timely action and follow up with State authorities.
4. CONCLUSION

Appetite for energy in the world is growing, particularly in developing
countries like India, as it is fast on course to industrialization and
urbanization.

Onus of fulfilling the coal supply requirement of the country primarily rests
on CIL.

CIL is likely to remain as a dominant player in Indian coal industry in
foreseeable future also.

In order to restrict the rising gap between demand and indigenous coal
availability to the extent possible, CIL has no option but to raise its
production level to a great extent by every means.

Coal production can not be started without possession of land, solving
R&R problems, getting Environmental and Forestry clearances as well
as addressing the coal evacuation problems.

Additionally, issues like faster exploration requirement including drilling
capacity augmentation, enhancing pace of projectisation for existing and new
coal blocks(out of 119 nos.), emphasis on coal production from underground
mines, etc., are required to be addressed by CIL
THANK YOU