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
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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