Rail – Coal Synergy to boost WCL Coal Dispatches

In order to give a boost to coal dispatches for its consumers, Western Coalfields Limited (WCL) will be leveraging the Rail–Coal Synergy by observing “Rail–Coal Week” through 1^st to 7^th January, 2019. This will be a component of “Coal Dispatch Fortnight” to be observed from 1^st to 15^th January, 2019. The plan is to put all out efforts to augment and maximize coal dispatches from WCL mines through Rail, Road and other modes. Rail-Coal Week being organized for the first time in any Subsidiary of Coal India will help increase coal stocks in different linked Power Houses of WCL.

Major portion of railway rakes of WCL is dispatched through Central Railway (CR) followed by South East Central Railway and South Central Railway. WCL has been given a target to dispatch 28-29 rakes per day which is already being achieved. Now Company is aiming to dispatch 32 rakes and more, in a synergy by joining hands with three Railway Zones. Detailed discussions with senior officials especially Central Railway at Headquarters, Area and Siding level have already been done and Central Railway alone has assured to help WCL to load 28-29 rakes per day, out of 32 rakes planned from 1^st January, 2019.

Rail-Coal Synergy has already helped WCL by successful commissioning of Crossing Stations at Umrer Area, and similar facility at Wani Area. This was a joint effort duly funded by WCL and successfully implemented and commissioned by Central Railway (CR). With the commissioning of new facilities in both the Areas the number of rakes to be dispatched from WCL from Umrer and Ghugus Sidings have substantially increased from 4-5 rakes to 7-8 rakes, and now it is being planned to touch 9-10 rakes from both the Sidings, which is helping in loading 32 rakes and beyond during Rail-Coal Week. Similar exercise has also been done in consultation with South East Central Railway (SECR) through which 3 rakes on an average are being dispatched and South Central Railway (SCR) dispatches 1 rake per day. Contribution of dispatches through Rail mode in total dispatch of coal is above 60% in WCL, rest dispatches are covered by Road mode, MGR, Belt and Ropeway. During Coal Dispatch Fortnight, the Company has made a plan to increase dispatch’s from the current rate of 1.70 lakh tonnes per day to over 2.0 lakh tonnes per day. This will include 1.25 lakh tonnes per day by Rail mode and 75-80,000 tonnes per day by other modes.

WCL supplies coal to State Power Houses of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka and Haryana and to other private power producers also through Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA), linkages and auctions. Higher coal dispatch by WCL through different modes during the months of November and December this year have helped in increasing the coal stocks at Thermal Power Station end. By observing Rail-Coal Week as well Coal Dispatch Fortnight, WCL will be able to provide sufficient quantities of coal to its linked Power Plants.

WCL has also started special auctions for power producers and spot auctions for other consumers from November onward’s. All these factors shall help the Company in not only to achieve its target of dispatches of 59.76 million tonnes (MT) fixed for the current year, but also to surpass it by a comfortable margin. Under “Mission : WCL 2.0”, the Company is aiming to create history by reaching its highest ever production, dispatch milestone by surpassing the targets fixed for the year 2018-19. Mission : WCL 2.0 implemented since June 2018 has helped in improving all fundamentals to achieve physical and financial targets of the Company.