CIL arm to set up country's largest coal washery in Chhattisgarh

Washery will have a capacity of 25 million tonnes per annum

South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL), a subsidiary of the Coal India Limited (CIL), would be setting up country’s largest coal washery with a capacity of 25 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) in Korba district of Chhattisgarh.

The project would be known as Kusmunda coal washery. It would be an integral part of Kusmunda Open Cast coal mine, one of the three mines operated by the SECL in Korba coalfields having an estimated reserve of 10,074.77 million tonnes. The washery would be built in 41.23 hectare area in villages Durpa and Jarhajel in Korba---about 250 km from here.

The ministry of environment, forest and climate change had granted terms of reference (TOR) for the project. The company had been asked to prepare the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environment Management Plan (EMP). Thereafter, a public hearing would be held to grant environment clearance for the project.

“The total capital cost of the project would be about Rs 942 crore,” SECL spokesperson told Business Standard. The life of the coal washery that would feed different thermal power plants across the country would be 17 years, he said, adding that the project would be implemented on a turn-key basis.

The Kusmunda coal washery would be the largest in the country. The existing largest coal washery is also located in Korba district. The ACB (India) Limited had set up a coal washery at Dipka area in 1999.  The Initial capacity of the plant was 1 MTPA that had been gradually upgraded to capacity of 12 MTPA, the reported largest coal washery in the country.  

The project is reported to be part of CIL plan to achieve production of 1 billion tonnes by 2019-20. Presently, the world's largest coal miner has 15 washeries that include 12 in coking and three in non-coking coal segments. The cumulative capacity of these washeries stands at 36.8 MTPA every year. The coking coal washeries handle 23.30 MTPA while the non-coking washeries are able to wash 13.50 MTPA of coal.

The CIL had planned to set up 15 new coal washeries in next three years. Of the 15 new coal washeries, 9 are non-coking of a capacity of 94 MTPA and six are coking washeries of capacity of 18.6 MTPA.