KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – State-run Coal India Limited’s (CIL’s) ambitious plans of ramping up coal washing capacity has been hit by time overruns.

The delays in operationalising various coal washery projects has attracted criticism from the Coal Ministry at a recently held review meeting, during which the Coal Secretary noted that timely completion of the projects was “critical”. The Secretary noted that the government was concerned over delays and that the coal miner should implement software that would enable comprehensive micro-level monitoring of each project under implementation by its subsidiaries.

The projects reviewed include Dahibari, Patherdih-I, Madhuband, Patherdih II, Bhojudih, Dugda and Moonidih washeries being implemented by CIL subsidiary, Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL).

Other projects facing delays are Tapin, Kathara, Ashok, Karo and Konar washeries being implemented by CIL subsidiary Central Coalfields and Ib Valley, Basundhar, Hingula and Jagannath washeries of Mahanadi Coalfields and Kusmunda and Baroud washeries of South Eastern Coalfield, a review of the minutes of the meeting revealed.

CIL has undertaken setting up 18 coal washeries across the country with an aggregate capacity of 95.6-million tons a year.  Currently, the miner operated 15 coal washeries at its pitheads, including 11 for coking coal, with total capacity of 36.8-million tons a year.

Representatives of various CIL subsidiaries present at the meeting cited a range of reasons for time-overrun suffered by the projects. For example, BCCL cited that Dahibari project could not be made operational owing to law and order problems at the plant location.

As for delay at the Patherdih I project, BCCL cited that a contractor had not been able to complete the track hopper system for receiving coal as per specifications laid down by Indian Railways and that the miner would need to allot the work to another contractor leading to delays.

In case of Patherdih II project, the miner informed that Ministry that while land had been handed over for construction of the washery, work could not started owing to encroachers on the land and that the local government would need to free the land of such encroachers to enable the project to be completed by revised deadline of 2020.