MCL to fuel CIL’s 1-BT goal with 50% rise in coal output by 2035: CMD

Sambalpur: Odisha-based Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) will remain the top contributor to Coal India Limited’s (CIL) 1-Billion-Tonne (BT) coal production target and plans to ramp up its coal production by 50 percent over the next decade, said Chairman and Managing Director Uday A Kaole during a recent media interaction. Coal India has set a target of producing 1 BT of coal by FY2028-29. MCL currently contributes around 29 percent to Coal India’s total coal production. While the Odisha-based coal PSU will maintain its percentage share (at 28-29 percent) over the next decade, it will contribute 285 Million Tonnes (MT) of coal to CIL’s 1-BT figure by FY2028-29 and raise it to 358 MT by FY2034-35.

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MCL produced 225 MT of coal in FY2024-25. In the current financial year, MCL has set a target of producing 239 MT of the fossil fuel. According to Coal India’s long-term coal production plan, MCL will be chipping in 250 MT of coal in FY2026-27, 265 MT in FY2027-28, 285 MT in FY 2028-29 and 305 MT in FY2029-30. Then, MCL will progressively increase its coal production to 358 MT by 2034-35.

“Our philosophy of business is that whatever our target is, we prepare to deliver 1.5 times of the target. So, we are comfortable delivering the targets year-on-year. So, we are positive that we will be able to deliver on the coal production targets assigned to us,” said Kaole.

Coal stock at record 35 MT: MCL CMD

On being asked if the country will ever face a shortage of coal as it did until two-three years ago, the MCL CMD said that the country will never face a shortage of coal in the future. “The numbers speak for themselves. Currently, coal stock with Coal India is at an all-time high at 100 MT. MCL has 35 MT coal stock. So, there is ample availability of coal now,” said Kaole. MCL despatched 158 MT of coal to the power sector and 36 MT to the Non-Regulated Sector (NRS) in FY2024-25.

MCL using surface miners to produce 98% coal: CMD

Commenting on the company’s sustainable mining initiatives, the CMD said that MCL was the first coal PSU to introduce surface miners in coal mining in 1999. And currently, 98 percent of MCL’s coal production is being done through surface miners. “It’s not just about attaining the coal production figures. It’s about mining sustainably. It was one of the first coal PSUs to do so. Surface miner eliminates the need for drilling, blasting and crushing. The introduction of surface miners was done way back in MCL only. And now, MCL is doing 98 percent of its production through surface miners,” he said.

“Surface miners are equipment used in opencast coal mines. They loosen the coal seams and typically cut coal into fragments with a maximum size of around 100 mm (10 cm). And they have water sprinklers embedded which settles some of the coal dust created during the process,” said Kanhaiya Mishra, General Manager (Mining) and Project Officer at MCL’s Samleshwari opencast coal mining project, which employs surface miners.

Currently, MCL operates 18 coal mines spread across Odisha’s Angul, Sundargarh and Jharsuguda districts. Of these, three are underground mines and 15 are opencast mines.

MCL to mechanise coal transportation 100% by 2030: CMD

According to an action plan for 2025-26, the Ministry of Coal has set a target of achieving 90 percent mechanised handling of coal by 2029-30. However, Mahanadi Coalfields plans to mechanise coal transportation 100 percent by 2030, said the CMD. MCL’s First Mile Connectivity (FMC) projects added a mechanised loading capacity of 96 MT per year in FY25. It is set to increase further to 146 MT in FY26, 183.5 MT in FY27, 306.5 MT in FY28 and 336.5 MT in FY29.

“There has been a significant improvement in our rake loading capacity in comparison to the last year. Last year, we loaded around 10 coal rakes per day. Right now, that number has already increased to 28 rakes per day. And we plan to ramp it up further to 45-50 rakes per day by the end of this year,” said the CMD. This would make for an increase of five times over the last year. These figures include both mechanised and manual loading of rakes.

In mechanised coal transportation, coal is first dumped at the mine’s pithead. From there, conveyor belts transport coal to the silo of a Coal Handling Plant (CHP) which is a kind of a storage facility for holding coal. From the silo, a pre-weighed quantity of coal automatically gets transferred to the hopper, which releases it into the wagon of a rake. It takes approximately 60 seconds to load a wagon. To put this figure into perspective, manual loading of coal through a payloader typically takes three hours per wagon. Since, mechanised coal loading takes only 60 seconds, the time taken to fill a rake, which consists of 58-59 wagons, is drastically reduced to just one hour.

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