KOLKATA: The Union Coal Ministry along with senior departmental officials is set to get together with the management of Coal India Ltd (CIL) and its subsidiaries for a brainstorming session that is expected to sketch out a roadmap for CIL in the emerging scenario.

Sources told The Hindu that the meet was set to be held in a retreat near the city by the middle of this month. This would be the first-ever joint move by the ministry and the entire top brass of the public sector coal producers (other than Singareni Collieries) to get into a huddle to chart out its future course. The issue of increased autonomy for CIL is also expected to feature at the meet which will be held in the backdrop of the Integrated Energy Policy (IEP). The IEP is considered a valuable input in shaping India's energy policy in the Eleventh plan.

Other than the Union Coal Minister, the secretary, an additional secretary and three joint secretaries, besides all the CMDs of CIL subsidiaries and the Coal India Chairman will attend the session, along with the functional directors.

Sources said that the according to the IEP, if India is to avoid large-scale imports of coal, not only does the country need to increase the rate of growth of coal production, but also raise production targets per se. The policy, formulated under the chairmanship of planning commission member Kirit Parikh, says that there is a need to increase the number of players in coal mining.

However, in order to raise production and sustain it, CIL felt that some policy support was necessary from the government, especially if the production hikes were to be of sustainable nature. These included a national rehabilitation and land reclamation policy. This would also feature at the meet.

The issue of increased offering of beneficiated coal was also important in the context of attaining global competitiveness and would be discussed. Sources said that CIL too agrees that it should supply only washed thermal coal to all thermal power stations other than pithead stations. This will reduce transportation costs since now a lot of rejects are also carried with the coal. About 70 per cent of the thermal coal moves over 400 km distance but only 20 per cent of this is beneficiated at present. Run-of-the-mine coal is usually not consistent in quality, thus affecting power plants adversely, sources said.

Strategies for increasing production of coal from the largely loss-making underground mines which now contribute very little to CIL's total annual production are also likely to feature at the session. Sources said that CIL incurred an annual loss of Rs. 2,500 crore from its 350 underground mines which contributed only about 10 per cent of its annual production, which is projected to be around 364 million tonnes in 2006-07.

CIL is planning to open large longwall mines of 2 to 10 million tonnes capacity within the XI Plan period and also achieve 100 per cent mechanisation by 2017.

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