CIL ramps up coal evacuation, to procure wagons worth Rs 555cr

Fleet of wagons are for operation of railways, said Piyush Goyal

In a bid to ramp up coal evacuation capacity, state-owned CIL is planning to procure wagons with an estimated investment of Rs 555 in the first phase.

"In order to facilitate coal evacuation and add to its evacuation capacity, keeping in view of the envisaged quantum jump in production, Coal India has planned to procure high-capacity wagons with an estimated investment of Rs 555 crore in the first phase," Minister of State for Coal and Power Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

The minister further said that the fleet of wagons are for operation of railways and dedicated only for transport of coal from the specified coal subsidiaries and on specific routes.

Coal production, he further said, has not suffered due to transportation constraints in moving the dry fuel from pit head to sidings and delay in construction of rail infrastructure.

The railway infrastructure projects which have been taken up for coal evacuation includes Tori- Shivpur New BG Line--94 km (approximately) length--in Jharkhand and Jharsuguda-Barpali-Sardega Rail Link--53 km (approximately) length in Odisha, he said.