Coal India (CIL) is implementing Rs 15,000 crore project for mechanised transportation and automatic loading of dry fuel in 49 major mines.
Altogether 650 million tonne of coal will be transported and loaded without manual intervention after the project is completed by 2024 .
CIL seeks to reduce manual intervention to overcome the perennial problems of overloading and underloading of coal when it is supplied to consumers.
The project, which will also help stem pollution, is complete in two mines and construction work is going on in seven others.
The tendering process will be completed for 26 mines in September 2020 and the project will be implemented in those mines by 2022-23. CIL has set a production target of one billion tonne by 2023-24.
The new project involves setting up coal handling plants with mechanised transport systems through piped conveyor belts replacing the existing road movement of dry fuel.
Piped conveyor belt transportation is a covered system for movement of coal and thus it promotes environment safety and prevents possible coal pilferage.