The Association of Power Producers (APP) has called for an upgrade of the coal-handling infrastructure in India after a recent study done by it revealed that a lot was needed to be done.
The APP has called for the development of coal storage facilities on port premises, coastal-based coal preparation hubs, augmentation of rail routes on which coal is transported as well as the establishment of a specialised logistics agency to facilitate efficient sourcing and transportation of coal to various plants.
The APP came to the conclusion after it was revealed in its recent study, that only 114 million tonnes out of a total 213 million tonnes of imported coal could be absorbed on account of blending constraints due to technical constraints.
The study also revealed that while the coal handling capacity of existing and planned ports in India appeared to be adequate to handle the expected level of coal imports, first mile connectivity of ports with the main railway network was still a constraint in terms of weak infrastructure, and had troubled the importers of raw material like coal and iron ore over the years.
Because of these findings, APP, which has been pursuing problems faced by power producers for want of sufficient coal, has emphasised the need for development of coal storage facilities at port premises and coastal-based coal preparation hubs.
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This is expected to address bottlenecks related to time wastage and hence demurrage at the port locations wherein the coal can be prepared while awaiting further connectivity.
"Setting up of coastal-based coal preparation hubs, besides investments will also call for significant technical know-how and understanding of coal composition, its constituents and technical plant characteristics," says Ashok Khurana, Director General, APP.
Khurana told Business Standard that coal logistics in the country needed to be improved not only for routing of imported coal to plants for blending; but also to handle incremental domestic coal quantity required to meet the upcoming generation.
Six major trunk routes represent the bulk of the coal movement in the country (covering both domestic and imported coal). All these routes are highly congested with capacity utilisation) of over 100 per cent (with the average being 150 per cent) at some critical sections, as against an efficient level of 85 per cent.
In its study, APP said the most critical sections in the trunk routes are the Bayana-Kota section with capacity utilisation (CU) - 180 per cent (Delhi-Mumbai Trunk Route), Juhi-Sonenagar section with CU - 251 per cent (Delhi-Howrah Trunk Route), Singapuram-Vizianagram section with CU - 100 per cent (Howrah-Chennai Trunk Route), Avadi-Villivakkam section with CU - 189 per cent (Mumbai-Chennai Trunk Route) and Katni-Bina section with CU – 124 per cent (Kolkata- Bina Trunk Route). With the incremental level of coal imports and domestic coal movement, these routes are likely to witness further stress, necessitating identification of alternative sections (to release load on critical sections within the trunk routes) to release stress on the major trunk routes. PPP initiatives could be encouraged at the state level as well to augment rail route capacity, suggests APP.
APP has also called for the establishment of a specialised logistics agency to facilitate efficient sourcing and transportation of coal to various plants.
The scope of such an agency could be to import coal on behalf of developers in bulk quantity. This will not only help in achieving economies of scale but also address the issue of railway network constraints by optimising the coal transportation.
Despite limited potential at the national level, coal transportation via inland waterways offers potential, especially in the National Waterways-1 corridor, wherein it could possibly serve power plant clusters on the eastern belt covering Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
