Reassess commercial mining strengths and weaknesses, House panel tells CIL
NEW DELHI: In the wake of government opening up the coal mining to the private sector companies for commercial use, a parliamentary panel on Tuesday said that state-owned CIL should review its areas of strength and weaknesses in order to remain competitive in the sector.
"Very recently a decision on opening up of commercial coal mining for private sector has been taken moving from an era of monopoly of Coal India Ltd to competition.
"In this background, the Committee desire the Coal India Ltd to reassess their areas of strength and weaknesses to stay competitive in the coal sector, particularly, when use of other eco-friendly energy options are being encouraged," Standing Committee on Coal and Steel said in its latest report tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday.
In a major reform in the coal sector since its nationalisation in 1973, the government had last month allowed private companies to mine the fossil fuel for commercial use, ending the monopoly of state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL).
"Regarding the efforts for increasing the production of coal , the Secretary, Coal during the oral evidence held on 22.2. 2018 stated that the government has decided to allow commercial mining by private players also. This will also result in rise in production of coal in the country," the report further said.
The opening up of commercial coal mining for private sector is the most ambitious coal sector reform since the nationalisation of this sector, Coal and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier said. NEW DELHI: The flexible use of domestic coal by power plants has resulted in savings of Rs 646 crore in the AprilFebruary period of the ongoing fiscal.
"Indicative savings due to aggregation of linkages is Rs 645.77 crore (Provisional) for coal supply during current (financial) year up to Feb'18," an official source said.
The government had earlier relaxed norms for utilisation of domestic coal and said that the move will help bring down the cost of power generation by 40 to 50 paise per unit and eventually lead to yearly savings of up to Rs 30,000 crore in the next 4-5 years.