Question : NON- COKING COAL WASHING CAPACITY

(a) whether the non-coking coal washing capacity in the country is around 96 million tonnes;

(b) if so, whether the utilization of existing washing capacity is sub-optimal;

(c) if so, the reasons therefor;

(d) the steps taken by the Government to optimally utilize the existing capacity;

(e) whether the Coal India Limited proposes to set up 20 more washeries with an aggregate capacity of around 111 million tonnes in the Twelfth Five Year Plan; and

(f) if so, the steps taken by the Government in this regard?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) IN THE MINISTRY OF COAL, POWER AND NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY ( SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL )

(a) to (d) : There are 3 existing non-coking coal washeries of Coal India Limited with a capacity of 13.50 Million Tonnes per Year ( MTY) and 31 non-coking coal private washeries of capacity of 87.20 MTY in the country. The capacity utilization of the existing Non-coking coal washeries of Coal India Limited (CIL) is 77.19 % during the year 2014-15 (till January, 2015) as given below:-
i) Gidi washery (2.5MTY), Central Coalfields Limited (CCL): Commissioned in 1970. It has crossed its rated life. Presently it is running with 13.37% capacity utilisation only.
ii) Piparwar washery (6.5 MTY), CCL: Commissioned in 1997 and is in operation with 99.63% capacity utilisation.
iii) Bina washery (4.5 MTY), Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL): Commissioned in 1999 and is in operation with 80.24% capacity utilisation.
The performance of outlived Gidi Washery has resulted in overall lower percentage utilisation of non-coking coal washeries of CIL.

(e) & (f): CIL has a plan of setting up 15 more washeries with a total capacity of 93.1 MTY. Of these, 9 are non-coking coal washeries with proposed capacity of 74.5 MTY, and 6 are coking coal washeries with proposed capacity of 18.6 MTY. Out of these fifteen proposed washeries, 3 are already under construction. Action has also been initiated for taking up the balance washeries.