Coal India's capex growth zooms twofold to Rs 1,840 crore in Q1

State-owned CIL on Friday said its capital expenditure jumped more than twofold to Rs 1,840 crore in the first quarter of 2021-22 compared to Rs 844 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Coal India in a statement said the capital expenditure rose twofold in the first quarter of FY22 as it continues to step up investments in evacuation infrastructure, land acquisition and procurement of heavy equipment.

CIL has achieved 94 per cent of the progressive target of Rs 1,960 crore, set for April-June quarter of the ongoing fiscal.

Underscoring the intent on strengthening evacuation infrastructure like setting up rail sidings and corridors, coal handling plants, (CHP), silos and haul roads CIL's capex has risen to Rs 504 crore on this account, the second highest among all capex heads.

This is a quantum leap of 109 per cent over the first quarter of FY21 when the capex spend on these infra projects was Rs 241 crore.

"Our focus is to have a seamless coal evacuation process in future when production increases. We are gearing ahead for that. CHP/Silo loading will save us considerable expenses apart from having environment benefits," the company said.

"Rail sidings and lines are being dovetailed with CHPs and silos," he added.

CIL's aims to move around 415 MT of coal through mechanised means through 35 first mile connectivity projects by FY'24.

Procurement of heavy earth moving machinery, plant and other machinery that would help in ramping up output through opencast (OC) mines continued to top the capex list at Rs 670 crore during April-June 2021. Land acquisition accounted for Rs 268 crore.

CIL has pegged its capex target at Rs 17,000 crore for FY'22 which is a 28 per cent increase over the actual capital expenditure of Rs 13,284 during 2020-21.

During FY'21 CIL has exceeded even its revised capex target of Rs 13,000 crore despite pandemic induced downward spiral, making it one of the few CPSUs of the country to have done so.

Of the entire targeted capex of FY'22, evacuation infrastructure leads the list with more than one-third at nearly Rs 5,950 crore.

Other major heads are HEMM, plant and machinery with Rs 3,560 crore. Joint Venture projects including Talcher Fertilizers Ltd and Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Ltd, solar and others will make up around Rs 3,200 crore. Land acquisition will take up around Rs 2,700 crore.

"CIL's capex will be contingent on the demand for coal and production needs. The investments will be made accordingly," the company said.

CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.