New Delhi– The Union Coal Ministry launched a mobile application to facilitate smooth despatch of coal by road transport to customers of state-run Coal India Ltd (CIL), an official statement said on Tuesday.
The “Grahak Sadak Koyla Vitaran” app was unveiled recently in Kolkata by Coal and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, a Ministry statement said here.
“This app is a step towards transparency in the system of loading programme and despatch. It also helps in logistics planning for lifting of coal in tune with the loading programmes,” it said.
“It helps achieve transparency in despatch operations, as a tool to monitor whether the despatches are made on the fair principle of ‘First in First Out’ and keeps track of all the activities from issuance of sale order to physical delivery of coal by road,” it added.
The app also provides details of coal allotment and lifting status for the convenience of customers from different sources.
In a move to provide more coal to power stations, CIL had earlier directed supplies via road to plants located at shorter distances.
The Ministry said that of Coal India’s total despatch of 542 million tonnes (MT) in the last fiscal, 140 MT, or around 26 per cent was despatched by road.
“The impetus given in the current fiscal has improved movement of coal through road considerably. At the end of October 2017, the movement of coal through road at a little over 93 MT accounted for 29 per cent of the total coal despatch of 317 MT,” the statement said.
“The despatch of coal through roads in the current fiscal so far has gone up by 12 MT, as compared to the same period last fiscal,” it added. (IANS)
