The South Eastern Coalfields ltd (SECl) will be constructing a new Railway Siding for introduction of rapid loading arrangements at its Junadih loading Complex located at Gevra Road Railway Station of South East Central Railway (SECR) in Korba district .

The SECl is targetting total coal production of 250 million tonnes (MT)  from its underground and open cast mines by 2019-20, officials stated.

Notably, SECl recorded coal production (provisional) of 12.10 million tonnes (MT) against target of 11.70 MT as on February 2016, Coal India ltd (CIl) informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in its filing.

The South East Central Sector which includes Chhattisgarh is also set to play a key role in Central government’s ambitious coal loading and transportation plans.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed recently between Ministry of Railways and Coal India limited (CIl) which will lead to procurement of 2000 wagons (33 rakes) in the first outgo, officials stated.

The agreement which will result into speedy supply of wagons for coal loading in dedicated circuits.

Initially, the rakes will be inducted and run in the 2 main coal loading Zones of Indian Railways i.e South East Central coal sector and East Coast circuit. These rakes will be inducted in circuits for transporting coal from MCl Talcher & IB area and SECl to Paradip/Dharma ports, Vishakhapatnam area and the power houses of Nagpur/Raipur region.

Under this strategic partnership, the wagons will be procured by Indian Railways on behalf of CIl, the maintenance of these wagons will be done by Railways at its own cost. Also, the brake vans will be provided by Railways itself.

Chhattisgarh is also set to earn estimated revenue of Rs51,596 crore from its five mines auctioned among 29 in the country under the provisions of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 during the mining lease period.

 The specified end-users of the mines are in the non-regulated sector. The mines are Chotia, Gare Palma IV-4, Gare Palma IV-5, Gare Palma IV-7, Gare-Palma Sector-IV/8.

The revenue which would accrue to the coal bearing State Government concerned comprises of Upfront payment as prescribed in the tender document, auction proceeds and royalty on per tonne of coal production. In addition, an estimated amount of Rs. 1,41,854 crores would accrue to coal bearing States from allotment of 38 coal mines to Central and State PSU’s.  Notably, two Coal India ltd (CIl) subsidiaries mainly – Sambalpur (Odisha) based Mahanadi Coalfields limited and the Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) based South Eastern Coalfields limited (SECl) are expected to play a pivotal role in CIl’s quest of attaining the one billion tonnes (BT) production target with 250 MTs and 240 MTs respectively, officials informed.

Notably, CIl, had unveiled its road map, of strategies to be adopted, to attain the one Billion Tonne (BT) coal production mark by 2019-20.

With the projected coal demand of the country hovering around 1,200 Million Tonnes (MTs) by 2019-20, at an envisaged growth rate of 7 per cent, CIl is expected to chip in one BT, of which 908 MTs is the expected contribution from the identified projects.

The process of identification of projects to share the balance quantity, to top up the one BT mark, is also underway. The key issues that the coal miner is basically relying on are timely completion of three critical railway lines and timely land acquisition and green clearance. CIl has assessed a tentative capital investment of Rs 57,000 crore for next five years to ramp-up its coal production to 908.1 MT from production level of 494.80 MT in 2014-15 as part of the road map for production of one BT coal by 2019-20.

Notably, CIl has recorded offtake of coal from its largest subsidiary South Eastern Coalfields ltd (SECl) at 124.34 million tonnes between April 2015 to February 2016.

This was against the target of 123.89 million tonnes (MT) - a growth of 11.1 per cent.

Notably, SECl is targetting total coal production of 250 million tonnes (MT)  from its underground and open cast mines by 2019-20, officials stated.

Notably, SECl recorded coal production (provisional) of 12.10 million tonnes (MT) against target of 11.70 MT as on February 2016, Coal India ltd (CIl) informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in its filing.

 he total value of mineral production (excluding atomic & minor minerals) in the country during December 2015 was Rs 20096 crore. The contribution of Coal was the highest at Rs9132 crore (43 per cent), the Central Government has informed.