Coal India’s (CIL) pitch for efficient and environment friendly mechanized coal transportation in its First Mile Connectivity, replacing the road movement, gained pace with the company successfully issuing tenders for all the 35 projects, of Phase-1, by September’20 as planned. First mile connectivity refers to transportation of coal from CIL’s pitheads to dispatch points.
Coal Handling Plants (CHPs) and Silos for rapid loading system would be commissioned across six of CIL’s subsidiaries, under the tenders.
To come up by FY’24 at an estimated investment of Rs. 12,500 Croresthe coal handling capacity of the 35 projects will be 406 Million Tonnes per year (MT/Y). Each of these mining projects has production capacity of 4 MT/Y and above. The expenditure would be met out of CIL’s Capex.
Under mechanized transportation, coal would be moved through piped conveyor belt mode promoting a cleaner environment. With reduced movement of coal laden trucks on roads it brings down dust pollution to the comfort of people residing in the proximity of the mines. CIL is undertaking a study through National Environmental Engineering Institute (NEERI), Kolkata particularly for assessing and quantifying benefits of environmental aspects of these projects.
CHPs and Silos will have benefits like crushing and sizing of coal and speedy computerized loading. Another upside is that with the reduced manual intervention, precise pre-weighed quantity of coal can be loaded. It also spurs loading of better quality coal.
“Improved loading time will bring down the wagon idling thus increasing their availability. Easing the load on road networks induces savings on diesel as well apart from positive environmental considerations. It will be an all-round win-win situation for the company, railways, consumers and villagers in the proximity of the mines,” said a senior executive of the company.