Coal India's pithead stock rises to 49 MT

State-owned Coal India's pithead stock has increased by 13 per cent to 48.6 million tonnes as on May 29.
Coal India's (CIL) pithead stock -- coal which has been mined but not yet lifted for supplies -- was 41.2 million tonnes (MT) as on May 29, 2014, an official said.
"There has been an increase in the pithead stock because there is sufficient coal stock with the power companies," the official added.
The pithead stock at Coal India mines rose to 53 MT in the fiscal-ended March 31, 2015 as the company is facing constraints in evacuation infrastructure.
The PSU's pithead stock at the end of FY 2014 fiscal was 46 MT, an official had earlier said.

Coal India had earlier said it has held deliberations with the Coal Ministry and internally on various models to enhance rail connectivity for coal movement.

A Parliamentary panel had recently said that to achieve an output of one billion tonnes by 2020, Coal India should establish a matching evacuation mechanism and simultaneously develop rail infrastructure.
"The Committee notes that CIL has set for itself an ambitious plan of one billion tonne coal production by the year 2020. It feels that to achieve this target, it is equally important to put in place a matching evacuation of coal mechanism by simultaneous development of rail infrastructure," the panel had said.

The committee had further said that in order to achieve the planned growth in production and evacuation in future, Coal India had undertaken a few major infrastructure projects to be executed by the Railways.
The rail projects include Tori-Shivpuri-Khatotia line with length of about 93.45 km for North Karanpura coalfields of Central Coalfields in Jharkhand.
Jharsuguda-Barpalli Railway 52.4 km line for IB Coalfields of Mahanadi Coalfields and for evacuation of coal from Mand-Raigarh and Korba Gevra coalfields of South Eastern Coalfields.
Moreover, Jharkhand government, Coal Ministry and Railways had recently signed a memorandum of understanding for formation of a joint venture to construct railway lines in the command areas of Central Coalfields, a CIL arm.

The Coal Ministry has also entered into a pact with the railways and Odisha government to implement projects for evacuation of the fossil fuel.