According to Pralhad Joshi, India’s minister for coal and mines, over the next five years, coal should be available unconditionally to power consumers, and that Coal India will remain the largest player and its subsidiaries will not be listed.
A new report by NITI Aayog and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) identifies how COVID-19 is beginning to influence the clean energy transition in India, specifically for the transport and power sectors. The report recommends principles and strategic opportunities for the country’s leaders to drive economic recovery and maintain momentum towards a clean energy economy.
Coal India (CIL) has identified 14 additional first-mile connectivity (FMC) projects where it will invest Rs 3,400 crore more in the second phase to boost mechanised transport and loading. This will take its total investment in the project to Rs 15,700 crore.
The state-owned miner transports 151 million tonnes of coal through mechanised system and loads through coal-handling plants (CHPs) and silos from 19 projects, which will now be increased to 557 million tonnes by 2023-24 through projects in phase 1. The projects under phase II will start contributing once the formalities of finalisation are over.
In India, 17% of the 283 GW coal fleet is set to become uncompetitive in 2020, rising to 50% in 2022 and 85% in 2025, international researchers said. They say phasing-out and replacing uncompetitive coal plants with renewable energy plus storage would generate savings of $2 billion in 2020, $8 billion in 2022, and $17 billion in 2025. The report, ‘How to Retire Early: Making Accelerated Coal Phase-Out Feasible and Just’, reveals that new renewable energy is already cheaper than continuing to operate coal plants in much of the world.
The country has avoided steel imports worth over Rs 20,000 crore following DMISP policy since its launch in 2017, Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. In 2017, the government launched the National Steel Policy (NSP) with an aim to scale up India’s steel making capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030 with an additional investment of Rs 10 lakh crore. The government also rolled out the domestically manufactured iron and steel products policy (DMISP) policy to boost the use of domestic steel products in government organisations.
Delhi-Mumbai Expressway: Construction has started on a 497-km stretch of the 1,261-km project, which is expected to be complete by 2023-24 and would cut travel time between the two cities by 11 hours.