The bulk of the 1 billion ton of Coal India’s production and 500 mt of captive output by 2020 will be carried by Indian Railways. However, the Dedicated Freight Corridors will be the game changer. Rather than moving 4,000 tons in a rake, if 15,000 tons are transported at one go and through efficient means, logistics costs will come down. And that should get reflected in the freight rates, Virendra K Arora, Chief Mentor, Karam Chand Thapar & Bros (Coal Sales) Ltd, tells Arindam Bandyopadhyay and Madhumita Mookerji. Excerpts from a freewheeling interview:
In the 1 bt production scenario mandated for CIL, what role will Railways play?
The bulk of the coal will have to travel by railways. Very little volume will actually go by waterways etc though the present government is taking it seriously. Frankly, inland waterways require huge investment and infrastructure and this route up to Farakka took so many years… and in the rainy season it stops because the mother vessel has to wait in the seas.
Coal is the only commodity on which Railways makes some money. Iron ore in any case has gone down. So, Railways has to bring back the viability in logistics costs too.
As of now, Coal India (CIL) is proposing 600 mt of which nearly 60 mt is on the pithead, and being transported by merry-go-round. The balance coal has to go long distance. Railways is the only means available to most of the consumers unless they are opting for coastal movement.
As of now, I find Railways does not have that much of a problem because it has the surplus wagons with them due to lack of iron ore cargo.
The problem is more with CIL. Because CIL increased its production by 9 percent, there was positivity all around and there was a small period when the power plants were not lifting enough coal since they had pithead stocks.
Now the scenario has totally reversed. There was a time when there were not even 1-2 plants on the critical list. Today, there are at least 23 plants on the critical list of less than 5 days stock of coal with them. And 18 plants on super-critical list (less than 3 days stock).
Now plants are hungry for coal once again but not able to get enough supplies.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2017-Ausgabe von Coal Insights.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2017-Ausgabe von Coal Insights.
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