All trucks of Coal India to be GPS-mapped in a month: Secy

To check coal pilferage, all trucks of Coal India would be fitted with GPS tracking devices within a month, a top government official said today.
The world's single largest coal miner is undergoing a major technological upgradation on the lines of global mining practices in countries like the US and Australia that will include GPS tracking of vehicles to check coal plunder and having a ICT-compliant machinery.
"We are using technology to bring the coal theft down. Under the initiative 70-80 per cent of trucks in Coal India have been GPS-mapped while 100 per cent trucks will be covered under it in a month," Coal Secretary Anil Swarup said at an event here.

The revamp will also cover electronic fencing of mines.
The move comes against the backdrop of the single largest global producer of coal being mandated to double its output to 1 billion tonne by 2020. Besides, the government is looking at opening up commercial coal mining to private players.
Swarup said apart from the GPS-mapping of trucks, CCTVs are being fitted at all possible vulnerable points to check the pilferage which is a "very serious problem."

Earlier this week, Coal India CMD Sutirtha Bhattachary has told PTI, "Coal India is ready for a technological jump to increase its efficiency and output. A large number of steps are being initiated that include use of satellite technology for green fencing and utilisation of GPS to monitor vehicles."

On funding of the upgradation, Bhattacharya has said: "Parts of capex (capital expenditure) and opex (operational expenditure) both will be utilised for the same."
The miner which accounts for about 80 per cent of India's
overall coal production has lined up a capital expenditure of Rs 6,000 crore for the current fiscal.
Admitting pilferage of coal, government recently said that a project for introduction of global positioning system (GPS) on trucks carrying coal is underway to prevent theft and diversion besides installation of CCTVs at all vulnerable points like entry and exit gates, weigh bridges and sidings to keep a regular watch.

The steps for upgradation also include introducing ICT compliant machinery and Enterprise resource planning (ERP) to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities.
To meet India's coal needs, government has set a target of 1 billion tonne of coal production by the company by 2020.
The move for technological upgradation of Coal India also holds much significance in view of government planning to open commercial coal mining to private players for the first time in over four decades.
The move for technological up gradation of Coal India also holds much significance in view of government planning to open commercial coal mining to private players for the first time in over four decades.

"We have initiated groundwork for commercial mining and work is on to identify mines in this regard," Swarup said.
This would be the first time in over 40 years that the government would throw open the auction to private players.
This follows another decision taken last month to allow the state utilities to commercially mine coal and sell to the private companies.
Coal meets around 52 per cent of primary commercial energy needs in India as against 29 per cent the world over and about 66 per cent of country's power generation is coal based.
India is the third largest coal producing country in the world after China and USA.

The government has set a production target of 550 million tonnes for the PSU for the current fiscal.
The company had missed the production target for 2014-15 by 3 per cent, recording an output of 494.23 million tonne.