Coal India on Monday said its capital expenditure has jumped 65 per cent to Rs 3,034 crore during the April-June quarter of 2022-23 compared with Rs 1,841 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year as the public sector mines stepped up coal production to meet growing demand.
Land acquisition costs have accounted for nearly one-fifth of the first quarter’s capex. The PSU spent Rs 608 crore on the acquisition, a 2.3- fold increase from Rs 268 crore spent a year ago.
Capex on the construction of coal handling plants, silos including weighbridges totalled Rs 577 crore during the quarter, a four-fold increase from Rs 141 crore a year ago.
Rail sidings and the laying of rail corridors took up Rs 571 crore during Q1 clocking 57 per cent growth. On a like-to-like comparison, the expenditure under this head was Rs 363 crore.
Coal India also invested Rs 518 crore in joint ventures Hindustan Urvarak Rasayan Limited and Talcher Fertilizers Limited. HURL’s Gorakhpur plant has started production, while the Sindri and Barauni plants will become operational during the fiscal.
“CIL’s production tempo is keeping up a consistent double-digit growth in FY23 so far and all efforts are on to continue the trend. What assumes importance is to have a matching evacuation infrastructure that can handle transportation of the increased output”, a senior official of the company said.
Coal India has produced 159.8 million tonnes (mt) in the first quarter, which is 35.8mt more than the 124mt output the year-ago period.
The public sector miner has set a target of 700mt in 2022-23. The total capex spend estimated for the year is Rs 16,500 crore.
