CIL board to discuss PPP model this week

P Chidambaram had stated in his last Budget speech that there was a need to devise such a policy on public-private framework with Coal India

The board of state-owned Coal India Ltd is likely to meet on Friday to deliberate on the concession agreement pertaining to the public-private- partnership (PPP) model for developing mines.

The government had recently said that an explored green- field coal mine in Mahanadi coalfields is being taken up as a pilot project under PPP and the model concession agreement has been prepared by Planning Commission for further discussions.

"CIL board is likely to meet on February 28 to discuss concession agreement pertaining to PPP model," said a source.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had stated in his last Budget speech that there was a need to devise such a policy on public-private framework with CIL as one of its partners to reduce the country's increasing dependence on imported coal.

The measure, he had said, would lead to an increase in domestic coal output for supply to power producers and other consumers of fossil fuel.

CIL, which accounts for over 80% of the domestic coal output, missed the production target last fiscal and produced only 452.5 million tonnes (MT) of coal in 2012-13 as against the target of 464 MT.

India's coal imports, which shot up to 145.8 MT in 2012-13, are expected to reach 185 MT by FY'17.