Coal department mulling collaboration with railways

Expressing concern over evacuation of coal from mines, union Coal Secretary Anil Swarup Friday said his department is drawing up a plan for an agreement with railways authorities for the purpose.

"Much of the problem is evacuating the coal. There is much coal and there is so much demand but we are unable to mine or evacuate it to the point where it is to be used. In this context, we have identified more than 50 such projects and I have written a letter to the chairman of the railway board last week," Swarup said on the sidelines of an event organised by MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industries here.

He said the feedback from railways authorities is awaited and a meeting is likely in late January to take the discussion forward.

"We are open to set-up joint-ventures for special process vehicles making these ventures into independent profit centres and they could be executed quickly.. We'll come up with a roadmap on how we'll do it," he said.

The secretary said railways has the expertise to advise the coal department on the viability of the projects to evacuate coal.

The coal department has framed a plan to address the issues in Coal India-owned mines to step up production - which led to the idea of forming collaboration with railways coming up.

Swarup said Coal India have worked out a minewise plan with regard to what are the bottlenecks are, how they could be overcome, who will do it and by when it will be done. "It is a very comprehensive strategy," he said.

Asked over alternate means of logistics, he said waterways might be considered when the infrastructure in this sector improves; however, it is not on the agenda presently.