Coal India to spend Rs 30k cr on expansion during 12th Plan

State-run mining giant Coal India (CIL) today said it plans to invest about Rs 30,000 crore to augment its capacity over the next five years and the funds will be spent on new mining projects, washeries, machinery and equipment.

"We are in the process of earmarking about Rs 30,000 crore for capacity expansion during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) period," Coal India Chairman and Managing Director N C Jha told PTI.

The funds will be spent on new mining projects, as well as for building washeries and buying new machinery and equipment, Jha said.

The Maharatna firm has set a production target of 452 MT for the current fiscal and wants to take its production capacity to 556 million tonnes (MT) by 2016-17. In 2010-11, it had recorded production of 431 MT.

The world's largest coal producer has identified 142 new projects, including 107 open cast and 35 underground mining schemes with an ultimate capacity of 380.22 MT, as new projects and a part of it is likely to be added during the next plan.

CIL is in the process of setting up 20 new coal washeries with a combined capacity of 111.1 MT and is also upgrading its machinery.

At present, CIL operates 17 coal washeries, out of which 11 are coking coal and the remaining are non-coking coal washeries, with a total capacity of 39.40 million tonnes per annum (MTPA).

Meanwhile, it is also awaiting environment clearances for 168 projects that it plans to undertake soon. "Our 168 projects that include ongoing schemes too are awaiting various environment and forestry clearances and are pending for long," Jha said.

Non-clearance for these projects has hampered production to the tune of 200 MT per annum, he said. "We will start work on these projects as soon as the clearances are granted. Clearances would enable us to take a decision on purchase of machinery and equipment for expansion," Jha added.

The public sector firm, which accounts for over 82% of domestic coal production, has earmarked over Rs 10,000 crore as capital expenditure for the current fiscal, of which it has set aside Rs 6,000 crore for acquisitions and Rs 4,220 crore for developing different projects.

The cash-rich company would not require to raise any funds for financing the proposed capex and it is likely to be financed entirely through internal accruals.