Coal ministry to build integrated platform for managing coal transport

The AI-powered Smart Logistics Plan will help build data sets for future planning

Aiming to double coal production by 2030, the coal ministry is building an AI-powered dedicated logistics platform for the fossil fuel which would integrate all the existing central and state-level coal transport tracking systems. The Smart Logistics Plan will entail tracking, managing and forecasting coal demand and supply from production to consumption end, Business Standard has learnt from official sources.

The coal ministry is in discussion with the Ministry of Railways, inland waterways authority, customs and coal-rich states to build the integrated platform. Sources said the platform will be based on the Application Programming Interface (API) of the Freight Operations Information System (FOIS) built by the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) under the railways ministry.

FOIS is a management information system for the freight business of the national transporter. The FOIS software helps CRIS track and manage all freight operations of the railways including the rakes and the terminals.

The logistics platform of the coal plant would be ‘gati shakti meets FOIS’ said an official. “The platform will be powered with AI and Machine Learning tools as well. This will help us build data sets for future planning. Based on the learnings, coal supply can be better managed in coming years,” said an official.

Coal transport remains one of the crucial issues in building enough coal stock for the thermal power units of the country. In 2022, several power units reported critically low coal stock and the railways had to stop and divert some passenger trains to run more coal-carrying rakes. Last year, the situation improved with the Centre promoting the rail-sea-rail (RSR) route through inland waterways.

However, several routes especially from mine-rich areas in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand remained congested. The railways ministry is building new freight routes in coal-rich zones for easing out coal transport.

“As the coal transport network widens with more freight lines and now also the RSR route, it is important to track the movement in real-time. It will give us an understanding of demand trends and centres, the hiccups on the route and how they can be addressed expeditiously,” said an official. As coal capacity increased in this decade, similar growth is expected in the coal logistics, he added. Officials indicated the platform would be ready in two years.

The Centre is planning to build a coal production capacity of 2 billion tonnes (2bt) by 2030. The coal ministry is of the view that coal supply would be in surplus of the demand in 2030 which is expected to be around 1.5 bt and this will help the country have a buffer stock of coal till another decade, this paper reported recently.

• Coal ministry to develop ‘Smart Logistics Plan’
   
• To have an integrated platform for tracking, managing coal transport
   
• To be based on the API of FOIS developed by CRIS
   
• To have AI/ML tools embedded
   
• Build datasets for future coal logistics planning
   
• Platform to be ready in two years