India's largest coal handling agency - Mjunction

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Featurefrom Haldia to Farakka is the shortage of rakes and portcongestion.Although intended for the 1600 MW Farakka unit ofNTPC, these facilities, once set up, could also be used byother power plants for carrying coal via waterways, thesources said.“This would help power plants procuring coal throughHaldia to avoid the delay in transportation due to shortage ofrailway rakes,” a spokesman of Kolkata port said.WBPDCL explores water routeAfter NTPC, West Bengal Power Development CorporationLtd (WBPDCL) is also exploring the possibility of carryingcoal for its Sagardighi power plant in Murshidabad fromHaldia via the river Hooghly (NW1), sources said.“One barge full of cargo will be sent from Haldia inNovember on a trial basis to see if carrying coal via NW1will be cost competitive and less time consuming,” theysaid.The 2 x 300 MW Sagardighi Super Thermal Power Planthad started commercial production in 2008. Currently, twomore coal based units (2 x 250 MW) are being added by thecompany. According to IWAI officials, more and more numberof power utilities would look for shifting their coal cargo fromrailways to waterways in future. If the cost factor is provedfavourable, NWs may attract the raw material traffic for anumber of power generators having units along the banks ofthe Hoogly.The cost of transporting cargo via waterways will dependon the charges levied by berth developers and privateagencies erecting the loading/unloading facilities. “Thesecharges will be decided by the developers and be charged tothe users of these facilities,” IWAI officials said, adding thatIWAI will restrict its role to maintaining the navigability ofthe river.CIL’s benefit from NWsAlthough CIL will not be a party to it, the state-owned coalminer will greatly benefit from such projects. CIL is overtlyconcerned with the shortage of railway wagons and increasingstockpile at its mines. According to some estimates, pitheadvendible closing stock at various mines of CIL may cross astaggering 70 million tons (mt) as on March 31, 2011.“In comparison to last year, the stockpile at various minesis at a substantially higher level. At this rate, the closing stockmay cross 70 mt by March 2011, compared to 63.3 mt in March2010,” industry sources said.As on the last day of September 2010, closing stock atvarious mines of CIL stood at 49.230 mt, against 37.90 mtreported for the last day of the same month last year. Theprimary reason for this increase in stock this year was theshortage of railway rakes, the sources said, adding: “Thisis further accentuating the problem of supply of coal in thecountry. If the problem persists, even increased importswon’t help meet the growing demand.” Among thesubsidiaries, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) had the highestclosing stock of 16.988 mt as on September 30 (18.498 mt ason August 31) compared with 14.193 mt in the correspondingmonth of 2009.However, over the last six months, the closing stock atvarious CIL mines has dropped steadily from 60.29 mt as onApril 30 to 49.230 mt on September 30. This drop was causedmainly by increased availability of wagons during off season(for most other sectors, including agriculture) and lowerproduction by the company.Fuel supply agreementsConcerned with the increasing stockpile of coal at variousmines, CIL is looking forward to signing fuel supply andtransport agreement (FSTA) with its coal consumers, but isconstrained by the lack of response from the Railways, CILsources said.“We are ready to sign FSTA with consumers having aminimum annual requirement, but cannot go forward in theabsence of any response from the Railways. Signing FSTA willensure faster dispatch and reduce inventory at mines,” thesources said.The FSTA is a tripartite agreement between the coalsupplier, transporter and consumer whereby any party failingto honour its commitment will have to pay compensation.However, the proposal, which was in line with the newcoal distribution policy (NCDP), has evinced little interestfrom the Railways as there is perennial shortage of rakes fortransporting coal from pithead to the plants.Earlier, the Railway’s ‘own your wagon’ scheme had alsofailed due to the Railway’s inability to ensure availability ofrakes to the rake owners during requirement, industry sourcessaid.Major hurdles for NWsThe development of NWs, however worthwhile it may sound,is not without its share of hitches. The biggest hurdle isperhaps the slow execution of projects by IWAI. The agencyhad signed a MoU with NTPC on September 24, 2008 fortransport of imported coal from Haldia to its thermal powerplants. NTPC had assured of a cargo throughput of 2 to 3 mtpaof coal on sustained/regular basis and IWAI had to ensureavailability of sufficient number of barges for transportingthe same. Two years later, IWAI is still struggling with theplanning and execution.Another major hurdle may be a lack of significant costsavings for potential users. Also, the problem of stockpileat CIL mines could be mitigated by increasing the supply ofwashed coal, something that the company is seriously lookingat. Once the proposed new washeries of CIL come up, “withsame number of wagons, around 20 percent more coal can besupplied,” CIL sources said.COAL INSIGHTS 30 November 2010
FeatureMoEF seeks coal quality dataArindam BandyopadhyayIn yet another jolt to coal-based core sector projects,the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) hasannounced that it will hold up thermal power, steel andsponge iron projects seeking environment and forest clearancetill such time as they furnish coal quality data. In a recentnotification, the ministry declared that such projects will bedeferred until information about the source and quality of coalis provided.“In order to assess the likely adverse environmentalimpacts of such projects, it is desirable to have informationabout quality of coal to be used. In the absence of correct dataon the quality of coal, the quarrying capacity may be computedwrongly, which may have adverse impact on environment,” astatement issued by MoEF said. The ministry further said thatit has come across a number of instances where substantialinvestments has been made even before the requisiteenvironmental and forestry clearance about the coal blocks isobtained. This in turn leads to avoidable delay in completionof such projects and results in blockage of financial resources.Therefore, “it has been decided that all such proposalsrelating to thermal power, steel, sponge iron which arepending with the ministry or state for consideration ofenvironmental clearance shall be deferred and delisted till thestatus of environment and forestry clearance of the coal supplysource for Indian coal or the memorandum of understandingfor imported coal is furnished,” it said.Henceforth, the ministry said, all infrastructure projectsusing coal as a raw material shall be considered only after thefirm coal linkage is available and the status of environmentand forestry clearance of the coal source is known.Projects awaiting clearanceMeanwhile, there is a huge backlog of projects waiting forenvironmental and forest clearances from MoEF. As ofNovember 16, 2010, 77 thermal power projects, 212 miningprojects and 738 industrial projects were awaiting finalisationof the terms of reference (TOR), an essential step towardsgetting environmental approval. All of these project proposalswere received after April 4, 2009, ministry data shows.Among the thermal power projects (pending TOR), themaximum number of projects (13) are proposed to come upin Maharashtra. This number is followed by 10 projects eachin Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, six projects inTamil Nadu, six projects in Jharkhand, five projects each inRajasthan and Gujarat, four projects each in Bihar, Orissa andChhattisgarh, two projects each in Assam, Punjab, Haryanaand Uttar Pradesh, and one project each in West Bengal andDadra & Nagar Haveli. Along with this, one thermal project,namely the 1980-MW coal based thermal power plant of AdaniPower at Gondia, was awaiting forest clearance.In the mining sector, 212 projects are awaiting TOR forenvironmental clearance. These include coal, lignite, ironore, limestone, manganese ore, bauxite and minor mineralssand quarries, among others. Of these, 33 projects will beundertaken in Jharkhand, 15 in Orissa, 12 in Madhya Pradesh,11 in Gujarat and eight in Chhattisgarh.Additionally, 177 mining projects are in the pipelinefor forest clearance. Of these, 32 are slated to come up inJharkhand, 30 in Madhya Pradesh, 25 in Andhra Pradesh, 18in Chhattisgarh, 15 in Orissa, 13 in Karnataka, and nine eachin Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. One of the projects – astone quarry at Hut Bay – will be undertaken in Andaman &Nicobar and will require diversion of 3.13 hectares of forestland.For some of the projects, the ministry has either soughtessential details from concerned state governments or isexamining details furnished by them.The industrial projects awaiting TOR include integratedsteel plants, ferro alloy plants, clinker grinding units,induction furnace units, sponge iron units, POL terminals,ferro manganese and silico manganese projects, coal washeriesand captive power units.Coal linkage backlogEnvironment and forest clearance proves a major blockade forcoal-based projects, but the slow pace of granting linkage bythe coal ministry is no less a hurdle. As of September 2010,1,267 applications were pending before the coal ministry, ofwhich 774 are thermal power projects, 355 sponge iron unitsand 114 cement projects.Among the 774 power projects, 92 applications are fromState Electricity Boards (SEBs) and private generators,aggregating new capacity addition of over 132,000 MW.Given the sluggish pace of growth in captive mining andno-go norms imposed by MOEF, it is only natural that thelong waiting period would lead to substantial time and costoverrun for these vital core sector projects. MoEF’s latestdiktat will aggravate the situation further.MoC’s stanceAccording to an estimate, a stage-I forest clearance for a coalmining project takes about four to four and half years at thestate level and 1.9 years at the Central level – high by anystandards.This prolonged delay in getting forest clearances hasput 154 projects of CIL at a standstill. Coal India Ltd (CIL)chairman P.S. Bhattacharyya, has recently urged the MoEF toconsider issuing environmental clearance for projects comingup in “open forest” areas within a period of 300 days.COAL INSIGHTS 31 November 2010
Page 3 and 4: Chief EditorRakesh Dubey, Tel: +91
Page 5 and 6: India’s largest coal handling age
Page 8: Cover StoryConveyor belts: An essen
Page 11 and 12: P&H MinePro Services - IndiaMining
Page 14: Cover StoryThe company has been one
Page 18: Cover Storyfull fledged R&D Laborat
Page 21 and 22: coal market fundamentalsthrough Aus
Page 23 and 24: coal market fundamentalscoal for PC
Page 25 and 26: Featureprice so that the cost of ge
Page 27 and 28: FeaturePCI coal imports from SAlike
Page 29: Featurean expenditure of `53,000 cr
Page 33 and 34: FeatureCoal miners savedduring gas
Page 35 and 36: FeatureAfghanistan to open up its m
Page 37 and 38: FeatureNTPC’s current installed c
Page 39 and 40: governmentDraft Regulatory Bill to
Page 41 and 42: INTERNATIONALAustralia may extend m
Page 43 and 44: INTERNATIONALwhole, EIA expects a 4
Page 45 and 46: Expert SpeakLarge diameter boring m
Page 47 and 48: CORPORATEMonnet Ispat posts 2%rise
Page 49 and 50: CORPORATEAdani bags coal block deve
Page 51 and 52: CORPORATEONGC ranked world’s top
Page 53 and 54: Logisticsrates of iron ore which ar
Page 55 and 56: Power sector updatePOWER CUTS IN IN
Page 57 and 58: Power sector updatePROGRAMME AND PL
Page 59 and 60: Power sector updateCAPACITY ADDITIO
Page 61 and 62: Power sector updateState / System /
Page 63 and 64: Power sector updatePOWER SUPPLY TO
Page 65 and 66: Power sector updateGENERATION CAPAC
Page 68: E-Auction dataincreased sharply aft
Page 72 and 73: All India coal data - September 201
Page 74: port DATAMajor Ports Through Which

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