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Coal India Ltd (CIL) has scaled up its capital expenditure to ₹14,834 crore for FY22, which is marginally higher than the MoU target of ₹14,685 crore set for the fiscal, representing a 101 per cent achievement. The entire capex was met through internal accruals.
This is the second consecutive fiscal that CIL has bettered its capex target. In FY21, the company had achieved ₹13,283 crore against the target of ₹13,000 crore. The public sector miner is likely to register an 8-10 per cent growth in capex in FY23.
Catalysing output growth
On a year-on-year basis, this increase translates to a 12 per cent growth. In FY20, the company’s capex was only ₹6,270 crore, which means the growth in FY22 comes on the back of a strong base.
“CIL’s capex boost was to catalyse the output growth and align it with evacuation outlets. Most of it was spread on land, procurement of heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM), setting up CHP/silos and creation of rail infrastructure for coal transportation,” a senior company official said in a statement.
Break-up of numbers
Land and HEMM put together, accounted for 40 per cent of the total capex at ₹5,867 crore. Capital expenditure under land was ₹3,262 crore during the last fiscal, posting a jump of 17 per cent over ₹2,786 crore in FY21.
Acquisition of land is vital for CIL to enhance its production from opencast (OC) mines. Land procured for two projects — Siarmal and Talacher — would help the company further widen its mining operations.
The centralised procurement of HEMM for the company’s subsidiaries — ECL, NCL and SECL — amounted to the bulk of ₹2,605 crore. Replacing the old fleet with the modernised equipment to be deployed in OC mines, especially in SECL and NCL, is essential for ramping up output. The company incurred a capex of ₹2,322 crore for setting up coal handling plants and silos with a major share taken up by NCL, SECL and MCL. Strengthening of evacuation infrastructure through rail sidings and corridors accounted for ₹2,307 crore of the total capex.
Apart from environmental benefit, CHP/silo combination ensures faster seamless coal evacuation and quality coal loading. Rail sidings and lines are being dovetailed with CHPs and silos, the release said.
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