CIL Despatches Record 375 MT Coal Via Rail With Third-Party Sampling Till Dec FY26

State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Thursday announced a major milestone, having despatched about 375 million tonnes of coal through the rail mode, all sampled by third-party sampling agencies (TPSAs), till December of the current fiscal.

The achievement underscores CIL's enhanced focus on quality assurance and supply chain reliability amid rising domestic demand for coal, which powers a chunk of the country's electricity generation.

This volume highlights the success of third-party sampling protocols mandated by the government to ensure unbiased quality checks, bring down disputes with power plants and check pilferage.

"Till December FY 2026, CIL has despatched about 375 million tonnes (MTs) of coal through rail mode which was sampled by TPSAs," the company said in a filing to BSE.

Of this, half of the despatches were made through silos where the installed auto mechanical samplers ensured high standards of coal quality process control.

The coal behemoth is aiming to increase this quantity to around 80% in the current fiscal.

In a bid to achieve this steep target the commissioning of new first mile connectivity projects and loading through silos is rigorously followed.

To ensure an impartial, transparent, and credible determination of coal quality, as stipulated under the provisions of the fuel supply pact, CIL facilitates sampling and testing through independent Third Party Sampling Agencies (TPSAs).

At present, 11 TPSAs are on board empaneled by Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFCL) to carry out sampling and analysis at coal loading points of CIL's subsidiary companies.

Coal consumers have the flexibility to select a TPSA of their choice from the PFCL-empaneled agencies for quality assessment.

CIL has also taken steps to introduce online analysis at two of its subsidiaries to obtain realtime quality assessment results.

The move is aimed at further promoting the use of technology and transparency in the sampling.

Notwithstanding these measures, domestic coal is highly heterogeneous that coal even within the same seam displays different grades. Owing to this, very seldom does the gross calorific value match for two samples taken from different locations of the same rake.

However, the use of technology for quality assessment has become a major focus area for CIL.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.