Coal India Ltd (CIL) registered a 65% growth in capital expenditure at ₹3,034 crores during the first quarter (April-June) of the current financial year compared with ₹1,841 crores same period last year. The Stateowned miner, which had scaled up its capital expenditure to ₹14,834 crores for the year ended March 31, 2022, is likely to register 8-10% growth in capital expenditure during the current financial year.
A major portion of the capex was spent on land acquisition and strengthening its transport infrastructure for coal evacuation under the first-mile connectivity (FMC) projects. Land acquisition at ₹608 crores accounted for nearly one-fifth of the first quarter’s total capex basket. This represents an over a twofold increase compared to ₹268 crores spent during AprilJune’21. The expenditure was spread across all the subsidiaries of CIL.
For environmentally cleaner and fully automated coal loading, CIL is setting up coal handling plants and silos to load an additional 415 mt by FY25 through FMC. Of the 35 FMC projects, six of 82 mt per annum capacity have been commissioned so far. Capex under FMC projects, on the construction of coal handling plants, silos including weighbridges totaled ₹577 crores during the quarter.
Both the evacuation logistics projects put together at ₹1,148 crores accounted for more than one-third or 38% of the total capex. CIL also undertook significant capital expenditure for joint ventures including Hindustan Urvarak Rasayan Ltd (HURL) and Talcher Fertilizers Ltd, which consumed close to ₹518 crores. HURL’s Gorakhpur plant has already started production whereas Sindri and Barauni plants will become operational during the current fiscal.
