Lok Sabha Question No. 191 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-07-18
Subject: Efficiency of Coal Mines
Ministry: COAL
Asked by: ARVIND GANPAT SAWANT, KRUPAL BALAJI TUMANE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COAL

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 191 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18.07.2018

## Efficiency of Coal Mines

## †191.   SHRI ARVIND SAWANT: SHRI KRUPAL BALAJI TUMANE:

Will the Minister of COAL be pleased to state:

- (a)   whether the Government has taken any steps to increase efficiency of coal mines in the country;
- (b)   if so, the details thereof;

(c)     whether  any  exchange  of  mines  have  been  carried  out  to  ensure  supply  of  coal  from  mines located near power plants;

(d)   if so, the details thereof along with the savings made in this regard;

(e)     whether  Coal  India  Limited  proposes  to  increase  this  saving  by  carrying  out  more  such exchanges; and

(f)    if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF  RAILWAYS, COAL, FINANCE AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a)&(b): Government has taken the following steps to increase efficiency in coal mines in the country:

(i)          Underground mines: Underground (UG) mines are planned to adopt latest mechanised methods wherever  geo-mining  conditions  are favourable.  Such  methods  include  mining  with  Continuous Miners  (CM) and Powered Support Longwall (PSLW) mining. These methods are much more productive and efficient than manual or semi-mechanised methods of UG mining. At present 13 continuous miners are deployed in the following underground mines of CIL:

| CMDeployed     | CMDeployed              | CMDeployed   | CMDeployed       |
|----------------|-------------------------|--------------|------------------|
| Subsidiary Co. | Name of the mine        | No. of CMs   | CMCapacity (Mty) |
| ECL            | Jhanjra                 | 3            | 1.31             |
|                | Sarpi (0.46)            | 1            | 0.46             |
| SECL           | Khairaha                | 1            | 0.465            |
|                | Churcha RO              | 2            | 1.00             |
|                | Haldibari               | 1            | 0.42             |
|                | Kapildhara              | 1            | 0.43             |
|                | Pinoura / Vindhya       | 1            | 0.40             |
|                | Rani - Atari            | 1            | 0.18             |
|                | Sheetal Dhara - Kurja / | 1            | 0.42             |
|                | Beheraband Vijay West   | 1            | 0.42             |
| Total CIL      | 11 Mines                | 13           | 5.505            |

Two PSLW sets have also been deployed at present in the following underground mines of CIL:

| Subsidiary Co.   | Name of the mine   | No. of PSLW Sets   |   Capacity (Mty) |
|------------------|--------------------|--------------------|------------------|
| ECL              | Jhanjra            | 1                  |              1.7 |
| BCCL             | Moonidih XVI       | 1                  |              0.7 |
| Total CIL        | 2 Mines            | 2 Sets             |              2.4 |

(ii)         Opencast  Mines:  Various  steps  have  been  taken  to  increase  the  operational  efficiency  of  the opencast (OC) coal mines such as

- o Development of higher capacity mines to take advantage of economy scale e.g. Gevra (70 Mty), Magadh (51 Mty), Sairmal (40 Mty) etc.
- o Introduction  of  state  of  the  art  technology  to  improve  operational  efficiency,  such  as  high capacity  Heavy  Earth  Moving  Machinery  (HEMM)  (like  42  cum  shovel  with  240  T  Rear Dumper, surface miners, draglines, Operator Independent Truck Dispatch System (OITDS), in-pit crushing & conveying etc.). Other technologies like High Angle Conveyor and Pipe conveyor are proposed for coal transportation which will reduce the operational cost of the mine. For survey, latest  technology  like  Terrestial  Laser  Scanner  (TLS)  and  drones  are  used  for  survey  in  coal mines. For slope stability, slope stability radars are used.
- o Use  of  Enterprise  Resource  Planning  (ERP)  and  other  IT-enabled  applications  to  manage  & monitor its human, physical and financial resources to boost the operating efficiency.

(c) to (f): At present there is no such policy for exchange of mines. However, with a view to optimize transportation cost, an Inter-Ministerial Task Force (IMTF) was constituted by Ministry of Coal (MOC) for  a  comprehensive  review  of  existing  coal  sources  and  also  feasibility  for  rationalization  of  these sources.  The IMTF recommended rationalization of existing sources on case to case basis for 19 TPPs. Rationalization  of  sources  of  all  these  19  TPPs  have  been  implemented  by  CIL/  Singareni  Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). This has resulted in rationalization of sources of 24.238 MT coal with an annual savings in transportation cost to the tune of Rs. 1013 Crore. In addition to these, an agreement was signed between GSECL and NTPC for swapping of 1.0 MT of domestic coal, through which there would be an annual saving of Rs. 460 Crore (approx.) as estimated by the power plants. Ministry of Coal has issued the Policy for Linkage Rationalization for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) on 15.05.2018 to CIL/ SCCL to take immediate necessary action to implement the policy.

***