State-owned Coal India Ltd. will develop 55 new coal mines and expand 193 existing ones in the next five years, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
The company is also undertaking portal-based monitoring of ongoing projects to ensure their timely completion. “Coal India has taken... steps to boost its coal production, (including) opening of 55 greenfield projects having a capacity of 92 million tonnes per annum and expansion of 193 brownfield projects having a capacity of about 310 MTPA in next five years,” Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said in a reply to the Lok Sabha.
A new project on unused land is called a greenfield project while the existing one that is modified or upgraded is called a brownfield project. Besides, Coal India has introduced technology “to improve its work efficiency” with high capacity heavy earth moving machinery. These are expected to improve operational efficiency and to cater to environmental needs.
During 2018-19, around 50 percent of the opencast coal production in Coal India was through surface miners.
Further, in order to reduce the import of coal, Coal India is taking up source rationalisation with part supply from higher-grade coal sources. More coal from various sources was offered through e-auction schemes, particularly special forward e-auction, for power consumers, not having a fuel supply agreement with Coal India's sources.
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