NEW DELHI: The coal ministry has initiated the process to sell
Bharat Coking Coal Ltd
’s (BCCL) washery at Dugda in
Bokaro district
of Jharkhand as part of its asset monetisation plan, a move that will also boost domestic supply of coking coal.
The ministry on Wednesday also unveiled a national master plan aimed at offering sectoral insight through geospatial layers on the
PM Gati Shakti
platform for efficient planning and implementation of coal mining and transportation projects.
The washery, which has an annual capacity of processing 2 million tonnes of coal per year, is currently not in operation and will be auctioned to steelmakers along with the coal linkage, the ministry said on Wednesday.
The winner will be decided on the basis of premium offered and will get the plant under the build/renovate, operate, maintain and transfer model.
India partly meets coking coal requirement through imports amid rising demand on the back of expanding steelmaking capacity. The sale of the washery underscores the government’s commitment to optimising resources for efficient utilisation of coal reserves and extracting better value.
The ministry has a target of raising Rs 51,118 crore through monetisation of assets in 2023-24. It plans to raise Rs 10,118 crore through sale of Coal India assets and the rest through initiatives such as auctioning mines, appointing mine developer & operators, coal bed methane as well as coal gasification projects. BCCL is a subsidiary of Coal India.