The Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC), a state-owned lignite and minerals mining company has targeted to spend ₹13,000 crore in capital expenditure till 2030. An estimated 46 percent of this capex is expected to be spent on acquiring land for various projects including the coal mining projects in Odisha.
“In the journey till 2030, we have planned a capex in the range of ₹13,000 crore,” said Roopwant Singh (IAS), Managing Director, GMDC during an earnings call held by the company earlier this month. According to Singh 46 percent of the capex will be spent on land, 15 percent on Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) of families displaced by the mining projects and 30 percent on plant and machinery.
“Approximately ₹3,000- 4,000 crore (of the proposed capex) is for critical mineral projects — two of them. An additional ₹4,000 crore is for our coal projects, ₹3,000 crore for our lignite projects and we would still need to spend in excess of ₹1,000 crore for existing lignite projects, as here too land has to be acquired,” the GMDC official remarked.
Odisha coal project
GMDC is planning to conduct the ground-breaking of its first coal mine in Angul district of Odisha — Baitarani West Opencast Coal Mine — during the current financial year and simultaneously produce one metric tonne of coal. The Baitarani West Coal mine having a 15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity is the first mining project of GMDC outside Gujarat. GMDC has a total of three mines in Odisha with 2095 million tonnes in reserves. This includes a second coal mine at Burapahar and a third at Kundali Lubri.
“We have three blocks in Odisha. The largest is Baitarani West which in future will become the largest mine for GMDC with capacity of 15 million tonnes per annum. It will be among the top 10-12 mines in the country. We should see ground breaking for this mine this year. We have already made payments for government land and at this moment payments for private land are underway on the project site,” Singh said, adding the company plans to sell the coal produced from this mine at a price above the “notified price” of Coal India.
Thermal power plant
Talking about the 250 MW Akrimota Thermal Power Station in Kutch, Singh said the project was facing critical delays due to lack of imported spare parts. “We are running behind schedule because of critical delays in certain spares which are supposed to come from abroad. I would like to assure the investors that our plant runs on our lignite only and what we are not able to consume in the plant, if it is out of order, we are able to comfortably push in the market. Yes, it is one division which runs in the red, but hopefully after overhaul, we would look at a better future in this year,” he added.