For Singrauli-based Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), a mining subsidiary of state-owned Coal India, 2018-19 is a landmark year, as its coal production is expected to breach the 100 million tonne (mt) mark, from 93 mt in 2017-18.

Only two out of seven mining subsidiaries — Sambalpur-based Mahanadi Coalfields and Bilaspur-based South Eastern Coalfields — have touched this milestone so far.

NCL reported a 16 per cent production growth to 24.6 mt in the June quarter. The run-rate is expected to rise in the second half of the year. “We are confident of touching the 100 mt production this year,” said NCL Chairman PK Sinha.

Stock piling at pithead

What goes unsaid is approximately half the additional 7 mt production will be dumped at the pithead, as is evident from the projected increase in offtake (supplies), from 96.77 mt to 100.5 mt.

The trend would have been evident in the first quarter itself had the pithead power stations run by the Central government-owned NTPC (9,620 MW) and Uttar Pradesh State genco UPRVUNL (3,873 MW) not come to NCL’s rescue by building up stocks at the factory end.

According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), as on July 16, two out of three NTPC stations, all connected by merry-go-round rail, have 27 days days’ stock of fuel. One has 14 days’ stock. The Obra thermal power station of RVUNL has 32 days’ stock, way above the CEA prescribed limit of 21 days. Normally, power plants are against high stock building as they cannot recover the finance cost from tariff. And, Lanco’s Anpara (1,200 MW) facility stuck to the rule, maintaining five days’ stock, which is comfortable for any pithead facility.

Infrastructure inadequacy

Meanwhile, NCL’s customers located far away from the pithead — three power stations in Haryana, two in Rajasthan (Kota and Suratgarh) and two in UP (Prayagraj and Parichha) — are fuel-starved.

The Haryana thermal facilities have five days’ coal each. Prayagraj has two days’ stock and Suratgarh four days’ stock.

The blame shouldn’t go to NCL. This composite coalfield, characterised by 10 contiguous coal mines in a 312 sq km area, was created in the 1970s to serve pithead stations. Successive governments in Delhi have failed to provide even the basic transport infrastructure to Singrauli.

Located at the UP-Madhya Pradesh border, the region is linked by an unelectrified single-track rail. Leave alone coal movement, even passenger movement is a challenge here. “In the days of the Raj, this area was known as kalapani , it still is devoid of connectivity,” said an NCL official.

There is one train to Kolkata everyday. The intercity train to Varanasi, the nearest town, takes eight hours on an average to cover 200 km. The rest of the trains are weekly. The nearest airport is a five-hour gruelling road journey away, at Varanasi.

Track doubling, a boon

“NCL is located closer to the consumption centres in northern and western India. But the evacuation infrastructure has been a problem so far,” said Sinha. Due to severe congestion, sending more than 17-20 rakes of coal a day is a challenge for him.

Sinha, however, promises that the problems will be addressed in two years, once the double tracking of lines connecting Singrauli is complete.

In 2016 the Union Cabinet had undertaken a mammoth programme to double the track capacity on the 261-km Katni-Singrauli route and 160-km Singrauli-Ramna route at a combined cost of ₹4,761 crore, primarily to ensure coal evacuation from NCL. Both the projects were scheduled to be over in 2020.

As an interim arrangement, the Railways recently opened six good sheds in a 50-km radius to help NCL evacuate fuel for upcountry consumers through the rail-cum-road mode. NCL is also investing in rail links to mines and coal handling facilities to ensure faster evacuation.

“For future growth we have to look at upcountry customers,” Sinha said.

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