Coal Ministry plans massive tech modernization push

When Anil Swarup, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, took over the charge as secretary in 2014, the coal ministry was going through a rough phase with allegations of coal block scam, bribery, extortion and outright theft of coal. State-miner Coal India which has a near-monopoly in India’s total domestic production has however been able to raise its output in the past few months.

“What we are seeing in the past three to four months, I think we are producing more than what is required. From situation of acute scarcity about a year ago, we are fairly comfortable in terms of the availability of coal as most of the power plants are sitting on an inventory of 27 days,” says Anil Swarup, Secretary, Ministry of Coal.

In an exclusive interview with Ankush Kumar, Swarup talks about how the adoption of advanced technologies has helped in bringing in transparency and efficiency in the entire coal ecosystem.

Over the years Coal Ministry has been alleged with cases of corruption, nepotism and majorly the coal block allocation scam. How was the environment when you initially joined the ministry in 2014 and what were the challenges that you have faced?

The past year and a half has been the most difficult, but the most enjoyable period of my life. The environment prevailing in the ministry was such, that decision making was very difficult. The team here comprises of extremely efficient people, but going by what has happened in the past few years, people were reluctant to commit themselves on files. They were not as upfront as they ought to be for doing things that was required to be done. I don’t think they are to be blamed; it is the environment as it emerged as the consequence of the coal blocks scam and everything going to the court and the CBI getting involved. So on account of all these factors the environment here was not good enough. The other challenge was in terms of the time that was available with us. As the Supreme Court has come out with its judgment in last September and we were supposed to complete the auction process by 31st of March, especially of those mines where mining has not even started. Therefore, we had just five months to come up with the legislation and complete the entire auction process in a transparent manner.

How is technology being used by Coal India and its subsidiaries for boosting productivity and bringing efficiency in the entire system?

Technology has played a critical role in increasing production and bringing efficiency in Coal India. Also in the context of preventing theft, the role of technology has been significant in the recent past. Over the years Coal India has been beset with the issues of pilferage and hence we are using various kinds of technologies to prevent such incidents. We use technology for a variety of purposes beginning with improved technology for mining where we are using Longwall technology and surface miners etc. Longwall has been a proven technology across the world which is more environment friendly as compared to opencast mining, but so far it has not worked very well in India. We recently had a workshop in Singrauli where Longwall was installed and has shown better outcomes, therefore, we hope to implement it in other regions. But apart from influencing mining in the country, technology is also being used for a variety of other purposes including data management and pilferage. By 30th June we have decided to make all the trucks of Coal India GPS enabled. Therefore, sitting at a place we can make out the exact position of a truck and in case it’s going beyond the particular boundary then it can be easily traced out. We are also using the RFID code for automatic weighing. By 30th June again all the mines would be video graphed and from a different location, we can easily see what is happening inside the mines.

Coal India has been struggling with issues of coal theft and coal being sold in black markets. Could you elaborate more on the use of GPS, RFID tags and CCTV cameras for preventing coal theft and pilferage?

Coal India and its subsidiaries are being re-strategized to sync traditional mining operations with technology by introducing a number of e-initiatives for improving performance, growth and productivity of the organization in a transparent & fair manner. In-motion Weighbridges, RFID/IP cameras have ensured weighment of more than 800 tippers in one shift as against 200 tippers through electronic static Weighbridges. This has resulted in a drastic increase in the coal weighment percentage from 10-15 percent to 90-95 percent, thereby reducing the chances of erroneous reporting in coal production figures on a daily basis. The use of RFID tags and RFID reader has ensured the entry of authorized coal tippers only inside the mine boundaries. IP cameras in electronic and in-motion weighbridges have led to increase in surveillance of coal tippers. CoalNet has ensured real time transmission of coal weighment data to the central server. This has resulted into accuracy in reporting of coal production and dispatch figures on day to day basis. The installation of GPRS based VTS and geo-fencing of mine areas have enhanced the transparency & effective monitoring of coal transportation. System based alerts on geo-fence violation is also being monitored through e-surveillance & monitoring units at the HQ and area level. This has resulted in enhanced/strict monitoring of movement of coal out of the mine premises.

As the government has set a target of one billion ton of coal production by 2020, how is the ministry planning to achieve this goal?

It’s not that a target of one billion ton has been given in one go, it’s a mine wise plan that has been worked out and in each mine, we have clearly identified the land required for acquisition, the environment and forest clearance that was needed. We have worked out a clear cut evacuation plan for each of these mines. The detailed plan that you have right now is about actually 908 million tons and as more and more mines gets added it would probably reach one billion ton or beyond depending on the requirement of coal within the country. What we were seeing in the past three to four months, I think we are producing more that what is required. From a situation of acute scarcity about a year ago, we are fairly comfortable in terms of the availability of coal as most of the power plants are sitting on an inventory of 27 days. The situation has improved as imports have come down by 15 percent with savings of foreign exchange of 27000 crores.

There are serious environmental concerns with respect to coal mining in India. As Coal India has to nearly double the production by 2020, how are you planning to address the environmental issues arising from increased production?

One of the allegations against mining is that it destroys the environment – the forest cover is ripped off. Now we are trying to dispel that because for every hector of land that is mined we are foresting 2.4 hectors of land. And this can be ascertained through satellite imagery. We are using satellite imagery to establish how much greenery is reverting back. We have pictures taken year after year that show the movement of green cover.

Satellite based monitoring is being currently used for satellite surveillance for land reclamation monitoring of opencast mines, settlement mapping for land compensation, Monitoring of coal mine fires in Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro and Karanpura Coalfields, Vegetation cover mapping of coalfields, Land use / cover mapping for environmental management plans, Topographical survey of coalfields in association with GSI, DGPS survey of forest area and mine lease boundary.

What has been the significance of e-auction of coal blocks in bringing in transparency and expediting the entire process?

In an e-auction, since blocks have been allocated they had to be cancelled and a mechanism had to be put in place which was transparent and where decisions were taken objectively. Fortunately, organizations like MSTC and SBI Cap were selected that helped us through a transparent auction process. There again technology was used to an extent that there was hardly any paper used in the entire auction process. Everything was available on the portal and the applications were to be filed on the web. The auction was done live and one could actually see auction happening on the web. So everything was totally transparent and hence there wasn’t any need for using paper except when the final approval or the processing was done on the file. But beyond that, I don’t think much was done on the paper.

What are the advantages of considering e-auction of coal over the traditional MoU method?

MoU was an interim and an uncertain arrangement whereas e-auction is a permanent arrangement for one year. In an e-auction one can know from which mine, which quality of coal will be provided for full one year. So there is a greater certainty in terms of availability of coal. However MoU is opted only when there is additional coal available. So there was no certainty about it. Coal India could easily say no to MoU if coal is in shortage, but in an e-auction it’s a commitment of Coal India for providing a certain quantity of coal over a period of one year. Secondly, the determination of price in this case is through market forces which are much more transparent. Through MoU route the determination was notified price plus 40 percent. Here the pricing is through market mechanism.

The present Indian Government has a huge focus on digitization. What is your ministry’s outlook on digitization?

Huge investment is happening in digitization. I receive the maximum 10 to 12 files a day, which is a big come down from the original number of files that generally comes to secretaries. This was very simple as what we felt in this ministry was that we should not move any files for just receiving data or sending data. This data should be available on the web and anyone who wants it should be able to access the data easily. We, however ensure that the data should be periodically updated. Once the data is available the number of files has come down to 60 percent. Most of the data is available on the portal which can be downloaded as required. In the Government, you have this concept of ‘JaRi’ (Issue). In hard system, it happens that when I sign a letter it is ‘Ja’ and when it reaches the person it is ‘Ri’ and there is a huge time lag between ‘Ja’ and ‘Ri’. Now in just a click of a button the information is sent and received with proper evidence.

There has been a serious concern on the quality of CIL coal. How do you plan to address this issue?

What we are doing now is that we are focusing a lot on quality of coal. As another criticism of Coal India was that the quality of coal that was supplied was very poor and secondly there is a lot of grade slippage. The focus is to use technology for ensuring quality testing through third party sampling. So we have engaged an independent agency which is now taking samples to test and see the actual quality. And the user has to pay only the amount which relates to the quality of coal that is supplied.

If you have an interesting article / experience / case study to share, please get in touch with us at [email protected]

Advertisement