Coal India Ltd (CIL) is facing the basic problems of not having enough mechanical shovels, dumpers and explosives. The new government, which has a 90 per cent stake in the $40 billion company, is exploring a break up and opening up the sector to foreign investment to boost output and cut imports, according to sources. But the firm has not met its output target for years, ensuring the country remains the worlds third-largest coal importer despite sitting on huge reserves. A failure to boost efficiency could threaten long-run plans to spin off some of the seven units of the coal miner, a vital part of the governments reform strategy. Two units produced less in the last fiscal year than a year ago, partly due to lack of basic equipment and aging machinery, according to Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal.
Experts said a shortage of mechanical shovels and dumpers, used in open cast mining, was partly due to CILs procurement policy.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.