Coal India to set up seven washeries this fiscal

The world's leading miner, Coal India Ltd (CIL) is planning to set up seven coal washeries at an estimated cost of Rs.2,000 crore by the end of this fiscal, a company official said Tuesday.

"Contracts for seven coal washeries would be placed by financial year 2013-14 with washing capacity of 15-16 million tonnes of coal," said T.K. Sinha, general manager (project monitoring division).

"Projects will be on a public-private-partnership format. Discussions on four of these washeries are at an advanced stage," he said adding that short-listing of prospective bidders have already been carried out for four of the projects.

CIL now has 17 washeries, washing around 35 million tonnes of coal.

Observing that there was demand for washed coal from non-power consumers, Sinha said CIL has plans for setting up around 18 washeries with washing capacity of 98 million tonnes, during the 12th plan period.