India's Five Leading PSUs To Invest Rs 35,000 Crore To Set Up Coal Gasification Projects

Coal India Limited on Wednesday (12 October) signed three separate MoUs with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and GAIL (India) Limited to set up four large scale coal gasification projects.

In addition, coal mining PSU NLC India also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with BHEL for coal gasification based plants.

The MoUs were inked in the presence of Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi, Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey, NITI Aayog member V K Saraswat.

To come up at an aggregated estimated cost of Rs 35,000 crore, the proposed surface coal gasification (SCG) projects are planned to be set up in West Bengal, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the Coal Ministry said in a release on Wednesday.

While addressing the function, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said that in next few months India is likely to become 'Aatmanirbhar' in thermal coal production. 

Forty million ton of coal stock will be available with thermal power plants by March next year and as on 1 October 2022 the stock with thermal plants comes to 24 million tonne, the minister said.

Through SCG route, coal is converted into syngas, which can be subsequently processed for downstream production of value added chemicals that are otherwise produced through imported natural gas or crude oil at enormous cost.

The move to set up SCG projects is aimed at reduced forex outgo, promoting self-reliance and capitalisation of indigenous resources, the ministry said.

Another upside will be employment generation with direct employment of around 1200 personnel and indirect employment to the tune of over 20,000 persons, it added.

The ministry said that it has targeted to achieve 100 million tonne (MT) coal gasification by 2030.

Further, it has taken initiatives for allocating Rs 6,000 crore to support Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) by incentivising implementation of five coal gasification plants.