Government-run Coal India Limited (CIL) has undertaken projects for construction of coking coal washeries with an aggregate capacity of 25.6 million mt per year, an official at India’s ministry of steel said on Tuesday, December 13.
The official said that the various coking coal washeries to cater to domestic steel mills will be implemented by various wholly-owned operational subsidiaries of CIL.
For example, the official said that CIL subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) has undertaken construction of a 7 million mt per year capacity washery, while subsidiary Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) will construct six washeries with an aggregate capacity of 18.5 million mt per year.
The ministry official said that construction completion and commissioning of Madhuband washery by BCCL with a capacity of 500,000 mt is scheduled for before the end of the fiscal year 2022-23.
He also said that the ministry of steel in conjunction with its counterparts in the ministry of coal has drawn up long-term plans to raise domestic coking coal washery capacity from 40 million mt per year at present to 300 million mt per year, by when coking coal demand from the domestic steel industry is forecast to rise to 160 million mt.
