Coal India on Wednesday said it has achieved a 28.3 per cent of its planned annual capital expenditure of Rs 16,600 crore in 2023-24 in the first four months, giving the public sector miner an early head start as it looks to scale up production for the fiscal.

Capex during the April-July period stood at Rs 4,700 crore, registering an 8.5 per cent growth over Rs 4,332 crore during the same period in FY23. A large part of the capex is towards putting up evacuation infrastructure, land acquisition and procurement of mining machinery.

Coal India in a statement on Wednesday said that typically the capex starts slow in the first quarter with the company laying out expenditure plans at the beginning of the fiscal. “What makes the 8.5 per cent capex growth significant was it came over a high base of Rs 4,332 crore of the same period of FY23, the year when CIL’s capex peaked to an all-time high of Rs 18,619 crore,” the company said.

A senior Coal India official said that the company in a span of three years has stepped up its capex from Rs 6,270 crore in FY20 to Rs 18,619 crore in FY23 (see chart) and this comes at a time the Centre has been directing the CPSEs to scale up their capex for economic revival.

Land was the major expenditure head at Rs 1,311 crore, accounting for 28 per cent of the total capex spend of April-July 2023. This was followed by the procurement of heavy earth moving machinery at Rs 1,083 crore or 23 per cent. Capex on the construction of rail sidings and rail corridors and coal handling plants and silos for faster evacuation of coal was Rs 664 crore an Rs 572 crore, respectively.

CIL has earmarked Rs 2,907 crore in the ongoing fiscal year to buy land.