In order to meet the country’s coal production target, the Centre today batted for private sector participation in Coal India operations through mine developers and operators (MDO) model, thereby making the contribution from private firms for coal production to be about 100 million tonnes by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan.
“Coal India is coming up with a bidding document in this regard, in consultation with the Finance Ministry. By the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan, we want the private sector participation in this regard to around 100 million tonnes,” said SK Srivastava, secretary of coal, on the sidelines of a CII mining summit here.
Srivastava said that there are 30 mines currently under this system, which produces about 29 million tonnes of coal, while with the addition of another four mines, it would be around 42 million tonnes by the end of this financial year.
The state-run coal major was planning to increase its production to 615 million tonnes by financial year 2016-17, compared to 435.84 million tonnes in 2011-12. It plans to increase production by another 180 million tonnes during the 12th Five-Year Plan Period.
The bidding document will look into various issues including land acquisition and also the development aspects of the mine. The Prime Minister’s Office had recently asked CIL to bring more mines under MDO model, while taking possession of the deallocated coal mines from private firms.
Srivastava added that not just in production but private sector must be involved more in exploration aspects too. “I believe that CMPDI should outsource at least 50% of its operations through private sector. Apart from this, private parties have a bigger role to play in coal beneficiation too,” he said.
While the Kolkata-based firm produced 435 million tonnes coal in 2011-12, it is targetting a production of 470 million tonnes during the current financial year.
Meanwhile, the coal secretary has put the onus of whether to continue in International Coal Ventures Private Limited (ICVL) on CIL board. “It is upon the firm’s board to take a final call on this, in the next meeting,” he said.
After requests from the Steel Ministry, the Coal Ministry had asked CIL to relook into its decision to pull out of ICVL. The special purpose vehicle for overseas acquisition includes Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), NTPC, CIL, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) and National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC).
