Kolkata, Nov. 3 (IANS): Coal India on Friday said the movement of coal through road was a little over 93 million tonne (mt) during the April to October period of the current fiscal, up by 12 mt over the same period last year. “As of end of October 2017, the movement of coal through road mode at a little over 93 mt accounted for 29 per cent of the total coal despatch of 317 mt,” the state-run miner said in a statement.
“The road despatch during the current fiscal till October 2017 went up by 12 mt compared to same period last fiscal.”
According to the provisional data, the miner reported its off-take grew by 8.6 per cent in the April-October period to 317.30 mt as against the off-take of about 292.16 mt in the corresponding period last year.
However, the company achieved 97 per cent of its off-take target of 327.79 mt for April to October period of the current fiscal. During 2016-17, despatch of coal through road mode had been about 140 mt out of the total despatch of 542 mt by CIL accounting for 26 per cent. The impetus given in the current fiscal has improved movement of coal through road considerably, it said.
The miner, in a move to rush more coal to power stations, said coal supplies to plants located at shorter distances have been offered through road mode from available pithead stock. As a result, power plants located within 50 km to 60 km of the mines may take as much coal from the nearest mines as they can. Along with Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar and CIL Chairman Gopal Singh, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal, had recently launched ‘Grahak Sadak Koyla Vitaran App’ benefitting the miner’s customers lifting coal through road mode.
The app, launched recently in Kolkata on CIL’s Foundation Day, helps achieve transparency in despatch operations -- as a tool to monitor whether the despatches are made on the fair principle of ‘First In First Out’ -- and keeps track of all the activities from issuance of sale order to physical delivery of coal by road, it added.
