Kolkata, 12 April : At a time when the centre is exhorting CPSUs of the country to frontload their capital expenditure to spur economic growth, coal India Limited (CIL) scaled up its capex to Rs 14,834 crore ending financial year 2021-22 (FY22), the highest so far.
Going past the MoU target of Rs 14,695 crore, this represents 101 per cent achievement. It was for the second consecutive fiscal that CIL bettered its capex target, which is a record of its own.
The capex increase was up by a sharp Rs 1550 crore in FY22 compared to Rs 13,284 crore of FY21, registering a near 12 per cent growth. CIL’s FY21 capex doubled in a year from that of Rs 6,270 crore of FY20. This means, FY22 capex growth came on the back of a strong base. The entire capex was met through internal accruals.
“CIL’s capex boost was to catalyze the output growth and align it with evacuation outlets. Most of the capex was spread on land, procurement of heavy earth moving machinery setting up CHP/silos and creation of rail infrastructure for coal transportation” said a senior official of CIL.
Land and HEMM combined accounted for 40 per cent of the total Capex at Rs 5,967 crore.
Ccapex under land was Rs 3262 crore during 2021-22 posting a jump of l7 percent over previous fiscal’s Rs 2,786 crore. Acquisition of land is vital for CIL to enhance its production from open cast mines. Land procured for two projects of MCL -Searmal and Talacher would help the company further widen its mining operations.
The centralized procurement of HEMM for ECL, NCL, SECL amounted to the bulk of Rs 2,605 crore under this head. Replacing the old fleet with the modernized equipment to be deployed in OC mines especially in SECL and NCL is essential for output ramp up.
The other important head of capex spend, at Rs 2322 crore, was for setting up coal handling plants/silos with a major share taken up NCL, SECL and MCL. Strengthening of evacuation infrastructure through rail sidings and corridors accounted for Rs 2,307 crore of total capex.
Apart from environmental benefit CHP/silo combination ensures faster seamless coal evacuation and quality coal loading. Rail sidings and lines are being dovetailed with CHPs and silos,
Capex growth during all the four quarters of FY22 and even on monthly basis was significantly higher compared to the previous year.
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