<span style="color: #222222;">The Government endeavouring for a cleaner environment has placed great impetus to further develop rail transportation of coal. Ministry of Coal said, fourteen Railway Projects are being undertaken towards increasing the efficiency and further enhancing the capacity of coal evacuation process which will help in reducing the time and cost incurred in the transportation of the coal. These projects will cover the distance of approximately two thousand 680 Kilometres which will be spread across Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. The total estimated cost for these projects is expected to be 22 thousand 67 crore rupees. Once these projects are commenced, they are expected to augment the coal evacuation capacity to the amounts of 410 Million Tonnes Per Annum, MTPAs. The transportation of the coal through Railway will also provide better connectivity and reach.<br />''<br />''Transporting coal through road over longer distances poses some of the major pitfalls and is detrimental to the environment and dents the coal miners pocket with increased cost of transportation. Presently, Coal India Limited CIL incurs about three thousand 400 crore rupees on transportation charges of coal. Also, large volumes of coal are transported by road, which many times lead to accidents while passing through rural areas because of narrow and poorly maintained road structures. To avert these hindrances, the Government has projected to invest in alternative modes of transport, like rail, inland waterways, coastal shipping etc. These modes are aimed towards increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the transportation of coal.<br />''<br />''Coal is the mainstay of the Indian energy sector catering to more than 50 per cent of the total energy generation capacity mix.<br />''<br />''The Government of India is presented with a challenge to reduce the logistics cost from production centre to consumption centre and to counter these they are taking up various projects for First Mile Connectivity. This project will make the transportation of coal from point of production to the point of consumption a hassle-free process. The investment amount to be infused by Coal India for the First Mile Connectivity projects is estimated at 14 thousand 200 crore rupees by Financial Year 2023-24, in two phases for its 49 FMC projects. To further increase the transportation of coal, CIL has placed Rapid Loading System in 19 of its mines.<br />''<br />''CIL is constructing 21 additional railway sidings at an estimated investment of three thousand 370 crore rupees across four of its subsidiaries. These projects, which include both greenfield and brownfield ones, will be commissioned by Financial Year 2024.</span><br />