WCL creates history, dispatches 50 rakes of coal in a day

New Delhi/Nagpur: Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), has created history by loading and dispatching 50 rakes in a day on November 5. This is the highest-ever achievement by the company, despite the adverse COVID-19 situation. Total daily dispatch of 2.46 lakh tonnes of coal through rail and road was also the highest.

Under "Mission 100 Days" Plan, a target of achieving 50 rakes dispatch in a day was fixed in early September 2020 to be achieved within 100 days by end of December 2020.  However, with the dedicated work of team WCL, the company could achieve the target of 50 rakes in just 50 days.

Initially, during the lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak in April, May and June 2020, dispatch of coal from WCL came to a level of 15-18 rakes per day and the total dispatch dropped to a level of below 80,000 tonnes per day. This was due to less or almost no demand by the state gencos and other consumers. However, WCL envisaged that the demand will pick up quickly and, therefore, formalized "Mission 100 Days" Plan to set the right fundamentals for augmenting dispatches. Under a drive, state gencos and other consumers situated in Central, Western and Southern India were offered additional coal by swapping their existing linkage from Eastern India as the landed price of coal of WCL happens to be much cheaper. All state gencos responded well and by August 2020, WCL could envisage getting additional demand of 20-25 million tonnes. Additional demand required to jump in daily rake/road dispatch and therefore, the target of 50 rakes were given to assess the ultimate capacity of coal dispatch.

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A "Rail-Coal Synergy" with a major share of Central Railway (CR) and support from South East Central Railway (SECR) and South Central Railway (SCR) was envisaged by close co-ordination with different Areas of WCL and Railway Officials. All possible help and support have been given by Indian Railways for achieving the unexpected target of 50 rakes and going beyond. Out of 50 rakes, 42 rakes have been shared by CR followed by six by SECR and two by SCR.

With the achievement of target in just 50 days, WCL has now set a target of 65 rakes in a day and 3 lakh tonne dispatch by end of December 2020. This exercise will help in increasing the average daily loading and dispatch from 25 rakes during 2019-20 to more than 40 rakes in the coming future.

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There has been a substantial increase in demand from state gencos of Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and also from NTPC Limited and independent power producers (IPPs). All such consumers have been attracted to WCL due to cheaper landed price of coal. With this increase in consumer base, WCL is heading for substantial growth in dispatch during 2020-21 and beyond.

Disclaimer: This story is a press release and is being published without any editing by PSU Watch desk. Our editorial team has only changed the headline.

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