Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said that Coal India (CIL) will invest whopping Rs1.22 lakh cr on some 500 projects by 2023-24, to achieve 1 billion tonnes (BT) coal production by the same period. The state-owned company has released its coal production and offtake performance for August 2020 and the first five months of FY21. In August month, has started to witness uptick on both fronts.
Joshi while addressing a Stakeholders meet organized by CIL through video conferencing on Tuesday said, “avenues for business opportunities with Coal India are huge.”
According to Joshi, out of the proposed spend of over Rs1.22 lakh cr, CIL has planned to invest Rs32,696cr on Coal Evacuation, Rs25117cr on Mine Infrastructure, Rs29461cr on Project Development, Rs32,199cr on diversification & clean coal technologies, Rs1,495cr on social infrastructure and Rs1,893cr on exploration works by the year 2023-24.
Also, Joshi said, the company would be investing around Rs14,200cr by the year 2023-24, in two phases for its 49 First Mile Connectivity projects.
Further, Joshi highlighted that, in a transformative plan to increase coal output and reduce import dependency of coal in the ensuing years, Coal India has identified a total of 15 greenfield projects to operate through Mine Developer and Operator (MDO) model that would entail a total investment plan of about Rs34,600cr of which likely investment ending the financial year 2024 is about Rs17000cr.
Joshi, furthermore, said evacuation infrastructure is another major area where Coal India will be infusing large sums of money into the economy. Meanwhile, investments in rail logistics like developing major railways (about Rs13000cr) railway sidings (about Rs3100cr) and procurement of own wagons (Rs675 cr) would total up to likely investment of over Rs16500cr by FY 23-24.
On exchanges, Coal India has released data for production and offtakes. In August 2020, the company’s production was at 37.17 Mill Te compared to 34.70 Mill Te in August 2019, representing growth of 7%. Between April – August 2020, the company has recorded a total production of 195.54 Mill Te against 210.15 Mill Te in the corresponding period of the previous year – witnessing a decline of 7%.
Coal India’s offtake was at 44.34 Mill Te in August 2020, increasing by 9.3% from 40.57 Mill Te in the same month a year ago. In the first five months of FY21, the offtakes stand at 208.36 Mill Te down by 13.4% compared to 240.65 Mill Te in the same period of the previous year.
On Wednesday, Coal India stock was among top performers on exchanges. On Sensex, the stock has gained by nearly 3% with an intraday high of Rs137.45 per piece in early deals before correcting. At around 01.49 pm, the stock was performing at Rs136.25 per piece zooming by 2.06%.
