People And Their Problems

New Delhi, 3 March 2007   

       Coal Vision-2025

CENTRAL PLAN TO BOOST PRODUCTION

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The coal sector is destined to receive lot of attention in the coming years and Coal India Ltd. (CIL) would invest Rs. 15,600 crores to increase production to 521 million from the present 363 million during the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12). An additional Rs. 8,000 crores would also be invested under the Coal Vision-2025 for coal beneficiation up to 2025 while the investment during the Eleventh Plan would also be quite substantial, according to Dasari Narayan Rao, Union Minister of State for Coal.

In the Integrated Energy Policy, the demand projection made for coal for the year 2031-32 was about 2500 million tonnes as against the expected demand of 473 million tonnes during 2006-07. The Government has decided to increase production from underground mines and the production target has been increased to 75 million tonnes by 2011-12 (from the earlier projection 54 million tonnes) through induction of latest technology and collaborative ventures. Moreover, coal production from captive mines would also increase from 15 million tonnes to 105 million tonnes during the Eleventh Plan.

The demand for washed coal has inspired CIL to set up washeries under the Build & Operate (B&O) concept where private companies with core competence in state-of-the-art coal washing would be encouraged to set up such units. Only washed coal would be supplied to various categories of consumers other than the pithead power plants. A time frame and a detailed plan in this regard would be formulated by CIL. 

As is well known, India ranks third amongst the coal-producing countries of the world. Through a sustained programme of investment and greater thrust on application of modern technologies, it has been possible to raise production of coal from a mere 70 million tonnes at the time of nationalization in the early 70s to over 400 million tonnes presently. Most of the coal produced in India comes from open-pit mines, contributing over 80 per cent of the total production.

It is a well-known fact the country has rich coal reserves and extensive exploration carried out by the Geological Survey of India and other agencies down to a depth of 1200m have estimated 245.69 billion tonnes of coal resources. The coal resources are available in sedimentary rocks of older Gondwana formations of peninsular India and younger tertiary formations of the Northern/North-Eastern hilly region. The States with high coal resources (including proved, indicated and inferred) are Jharkhand, Orissa and Chattisgarh.  

With increasing trend towards industrialization, power requirement has gone up considerably and is likely to increase further in the coming years. Coal is obviously the most important source of energy though in recent times alternatives are being explored. About 70 per cent of coal is consumed in the power sector and the rest in industries such as steel, cement, fertilizers paper etc.

In the transport sector, however, direct consumption of coal by Railways is going down on account of phasing out of steam locomotives. To cope with the increasing demand for coal, there is an imperative need to gear up production and productivity.

The present demand of 445 million tonnes of coal per annum is expected to go up to 1260 million tonnes by 2025. And the Government is poised to take necessary steps to increase coal production to meet the demands in steel, power and cement industries with an expected increase of 150 million tonnes per annum.

It is a well known fact that coal will continue to be the leader in meeting the energy needs of the country and obviously is the focus of attention as the power sector has been growing at the rate of 5 per cent per year. To keep up this momentum, the Coal India has been stressing the need for adoption of modern technology, as open cast reserves may not last for more than 50-60 years.

According to CIL sources, the following areas of research are being given major thrust for advancement of technology: CBM resource assessment and recovery techniques suitable for Indian conditions, including technology for commercial utilization; underground coal and lignite gasification of deposits, which are not techno-economically amenable to conventional mining methods; hard roof management for underground mines by establishing technologies like hydro-fracturing or safe blasting with explosives or non-explosive materials; trials of suitable mining methods for sleep and thick seams; detection and mapping of old and unapproachable workings; wireless multimedia communication for underground mines; and dry beneficiation of coal and improvement in fine coal recovery techniques.

Apart from this, modern IT tools as also R&D efforts to achieve technology adoption, adaptation and assimilation, particularly to suit Indian conditions, and achieve process efficiency and consistency are also being implemented. In tune with the Vision Statement-2020, prepared by the Union Ministry of Mines, already some positive developments have taken place, but safer and more conformable automation of increasing number of tasks and application of computer technology would become necessary in the foreseeable future.  

Technological innovations in the mining industry, and especially in the coal sector is indeed vital for achieving the production growth and meeting the demands of the country. At the first Asian Mining Congress held in 2005, the efficacy of longwall mining and its success in major coal producing countries like China, USA, Australia and South Africa made experts acclaim this technology. In a remarkable presentation, the authors (Dr S.K. Sarkar and Prof. A. K. Ghosh) had rightly pointed out that in spite of the failure of longwall mining in India, the ground realities have changed over time and this would be the preferred option in many locales.

Mention may be made of factors such as locales being at high depth where open casting is not possible and any variant of bord and pillar mining is not feasible, steady rise in labour rates over the years and lack of interaction between foreign agencies instrumental in executing the longwall programme and Indian scientific institutes. However, recently the Longwall Powered Supports have been introduced in a limited scale 

At such a juncture, many developing countries like China, India, Mongolia and Iran who greatly benefited from technological innovations in the mining industry have the potential to further surge ahead in the coming years through tie-ups with the advanced countries and also among themselves.

As regards coal is concerned, the Government has expressed its intention for 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the sector to meet the increasing needs. Moreover, experts are also examining the existing bottlenecks and obstacles to tap resources to advanced technological means, which are vital for increasing coal output.

India is endowed with rich mineral deposits but the pace of industrial growth has necessitated development of modern mining technology to explore more yields of iron ore, bauxite, copper and chromites apart from coal and lignite. It is expected that sustained research would yield better results, leading to higher production and productivity of coal, so as to keep pace with the projected 9 per cent growth this year.---INFA

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