The Coal Ministry on Monday said it will take up an additional 19 first-mile connectivity (FMC) projects, to be implemented by FY27, for faster evacuation of the commodity.

The FMC projects for Coal India (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) have a cumulative a capacity of 330 million tonnes (mt)

So far, the Ministry has undertaken 55 FMC projects, 44 for CIL and five for SCCL and three for NLC India (NLCIL) with 526 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity with an investment of ₹18,000 crore, the Ministry said in a statement.

Of these, eight projects, six for CIL and two for SCCL, of 95.5 MTPA capacity have been commissioned, while the remaining will be commissioned by FY25, it added.

To ensure efficient and environment-friendly coal evacuation in future, the Ministry is working on a National Coal Logistic Plan, including first mile connectivity through railway sidings near coal mines and strengthening of rail network in coalfields.

Production target

It has set a target to produce 1.31 billion tonnes (bt) of coal by FY25 and 1.5 bt in FY30. In this context, development of coal transportation that is cost efficient, fast and environmentally-friendly is important, the Ministry said.

It has formulated a strategy to develop an integrated approach for eliminating road transportation of coal in mines and has taken steps to upgrade mechanised coal transportation and loading system under FMC projects. Coal handling plants (CHPs) and silos with rapid loading systems will have benefits such as crushing, sizing of coal and speedy computer-aided loading.

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