SECL struggles to retain CIL's flagship position

Country's largest coal producing company to slip to second place after expansion plans denied

South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), the country’s largest coal producing company and the most profitable subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), is likely to lose its flagship position to Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) after a recent order by the green panel put a spanner in crucial expansion plans.
 
The company had proposed to expand the capacity of its Korba-based Kusmunda open cast mine from 18.75 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 62.5 MTPA. The ministry of environment, forest and climate change, however, denied the request citing environmental concerns, instead permitting it to expand the capacity only to 26 MTPA.

A company spokesperson said the company was hopeful that the proposed plan for Kusmunda --- one of the projects in the Emergency Coal Production Plan (ECPP) of CIL, would be approved in phases.
 
To augment production, nine new projects are in the pipeline for approval in Korba and Raigarh districts. If the expansion plans of the SECL fail to take shape, the company would slip to number two position in terms of production by 2019-20 as the CIL had fixed 250 MTPA target for MCL as against SECL’s 240 MTPA under its target plan of 1 billion tonnes. For the current financial year, SECL had set a target of 137 million tonnes (MT); the spokesperson said that target would be comfortably achieved.

 
Coal reserves of SECL are spread over the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. The company is operating 85 mines (52 mines in CG and 33 in Madhya Pradesh). At present, there are 33 ongoing projects under implementation with rated capacity of 168.66 MT. From the financial perspective, the company earned a Profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 3659.93 crore in the last fiscal.