Kolkata : Coal India Ltd (CIL) has is- sued letters of acceptance (LOA) to mine developer and operators (MDO) for seven coal projects with a cumulative annual production capacity of about 100 million tonnes (mt). The state-owned miner is engaging MDOS through open global tenders to increase coal output and reduce import de- pendency, CIL said in a statement.
CIL is tracking 15 greenfield projects to mine coal through the MDO route. The estimated investment of 120,600 crore would largely go towards land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement as well as railway sidings.
“Of the seven projects for which it has issued LOA, three belong to Central Coalfields (CCL) and two to Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) while South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) and Eastern Coalfields (ECL) ac- (4mt). count for one project each.
Two of the projects, Siarmal open cast project (OCP) of MCL in Odisha, having an an- nual output of 50 mt, and Hura ‘C’OCP of ECL in West Bengal of 3 mt capacity are expected to start mining operations dur- ing the ongoing financial year,” the release said. LOA for two projects Madannagar OCP (12 mt) and Pelma OCP (15 mt) of SECL will be issued shortly. The remaining six pro- jects are at different stages of tendering.
The contract period of en- gagement is 25 years or the life of the mine, whichever is less.
ROLE OF MDOS
The total rated capacity of the 15 projects involving MDOS is close to 169 mt. Eleven of these mines are opencast (165 mt) and the rest underground (4mt).
The role of MDOs would be to mine and deliver coal to CIL’s coal companies in ac cordance with the approved mining plan. The ownership of the mines and coal would rest with CIL, and the company will handle the sale of coal, it said.
