MCL floats second tender for 10 mt coal washery

Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, a subsidiary of Coal India, has floated an online tender seeking participation of interested parties to set up a 10 million tonne (mt) per annum coal washery at Talcher.

This is the second online tender by the coal company for establishment of coal washery. MCL, which plans to set up five coal washeries in the state, had floated the previous tender for another washery on May 29 this year.

"MCL on Monday floated its second e-tender for setting up a 10 MT capacity Jagannath coal washery at Talcher Coalfield in Angul district," the coal miner said in a statement today.

The washeries are to be set up under build operate and maintain (BOM) concept, where a bidder has the liberty to choose the technology keeping in mind the project cost and return on investments. As per the tender rules, the operator will have to establish and operate the plant at least for 10 years.

Coal washeries are beneficiation plant that separate mined coal from impurities such as sand and stones and in the process minimises ash content in it. Coal produced by MCL, with more than 40 per cent ash content, are mostly used for power generation. MCL intends to bring down ash content to less than 34 per cent, the mandatory percentage prescribed by the Union government for thermal power plants located less than 500 km from coal mines.

Though MCL has been asked by CIL to set up four coal washeries, it has targeted to set up five washeries. Apart from floating tenders for two washeries at Ib Valley and Jagannath mines having 10 mtpa capacity, it proposes to issue tender for three more washeries - at Lakhanpur (20 mt capacity), Siarmal (40 mt) and Gopaljee Kaniha (20 mt) to achieve a total coal washing capacity of 120 mt per year.

MCL had produced over 121 mt coal in 2014-15 and has plans to produce 250 mt by 2019-20. Talcher is its key coal producing region, which is home to the biggest coalfield of India with nearly 35 billion tonne deposits. Spread over 500 square kilometers area, the region sends nearly 100,000 tonne coal to Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and other parts of India daily including state-based thermal power plants.

MCL expects the online tendering would reduce contract awarding process by at least a year as against 16 months' time taken in a manual tendering process. The washery is to be made functional within 18 months from signing of the contract.

Its other two manual tenders for coal washeries finalised in December 2013 and in May 2014 are awaiting environmental clearance.