CIL to outsource drilling jobs, spend Rs 500 crore on expansion

Aiming to increase its annual drilling capacity to one million metres (rpt) by the end of 2010-11 with an estimated Rs 500 crore, Coal India Ltd (CIL) will outsource a part of its drilling work.

“We will outsource a part of Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Ltd’s (CMPDI’s drilling work to increase the capacity from 200,000 metre per annum to a million metre over the next two years at an investment of about Rs 500 crore,” said Partha S Bhattacharyya, chairman, Coal India.

Drilling is the process by which companies establish quality and quantity of estimated mineral reserves. CIL’s arm CMPDI carries out such activities to map and explore coal assets in the country.

Bhattacharyya said CMPDI will award drilling contracts for 600,00 metres and double its capacity to 400,000 metres in two years by using modern equipment.

Through outsourcing, CIL intends to expedite the process of ascertaining coal reserves that would help it meet the dry fuel requirement of industries, including power and steel.Currently, India has a proven coal reserve of 101 billion tonnes while inferred resources stand at 163 billion tonnes.

As part of its expansion plans, CIL is investing Rs 18,000 crore in the Eleventh plan period (2007-12) to ramp up its annual production capacity to 520 million tonnes. In 2008-09, the company produced over 400 million tonnes of coal.