KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) - India’s Coal Ministry has sought intervention and facilitation from the Railway Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office to bring forward the completion date of a new railway network, from 2017 to 2016, to enable major Coal India Limited (CIL) to evacuate an additional 300-million tonnes a year of coal.

In a communication, the Coal Ministry stated that the early completion of the $1.14-billion construction of new railways lines across the eastern and central Indian provinces would enable CIL to free-up about 300-million tonnes a year of coal, which could not be mined in the absence of such transportation logistics in the regions.

CIL has already drawn-up a schedule to procure its own railway rakes for coal freight to be run on the network currently under construction by government-owned and operated Indian Railways, the communication noted.

The railway links include Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia, linking the North Karanpura coal blocks in Jharkhand, the Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega link connecting the IB Valley coal block, and the Bhupdeopur-Raigarh-Mand link connecting coal blocks in Chhattisgarh.

Sources said that the Coal Ministry had already approved procurement of about 250 railway rakes over the next three years, to enable CIL to transport additional coal, of which orders for about 34 rakes would be placed by the end of March.

The doubling of rakes available to CIL to around 450 would enable the miner to carry 300-million tonnes a year of dry fuel.

The Coal Ministry had pointed out the inordinate delays already suffered by these three railway projects. The project linking North Karanpura coal blocks was started in 1999, with scheduled completion by 2005, but to date only half the project work had been completed.

Similarly, the project to link the IB Valley coal blocks had been scheduled for completion in 2009, but was yet to be commissioned, even though CIL had handed over its share of funding to the Indian Railways, the sources said.

Indian Railways for its part pointed out that large parts of the project were located in regions that were plagued by law and order problems with dense forest areas under control of armed and violent left wing extremists.

Meanwhile, the Association of Power Producers in a communication to Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, lodged a complaint that a lack of coordination between CIL and Indian Railways was leading to acute shortages of coal at power plants across the country.

The organisation, representing private power producers, said that coal shortages stemming from railways' inability to provide sufficient rakes to CIL had rendered fuel supply agreements (FSAs) between the miner and power producers ‘meaningless’, as CIL had not taken into consideration Indian Railway’s shortcomings while concluding such FSAs.

Indian Railways has defended its freight carrying limitations on the grounds that it was never consulted by either the power producer or CIL at the time of concluding coal supply agreements between them.