Piyush Goyal said that the MoU will help in fulfilling the 1 billion tonne target of Coal India. Appreciating Ministry of Coal, the Minister said that there is no single power plant in the country today that falls in critical category. This became possible only because of the support of Ministry of Railways. Goyal defined this MoU as first step in large partnership with the Ministry of Railways to serve people of India.

The MoU will benefit the economy as a whole and the Railways, the coal sector and power sector in particular. The remarkable part of this strategic partnership is that the wagons will be procured by Indian Railways on behalf of CIL. These wagons will lead to additional loading of 8-10 tons per wagon as compared to the conventional wagons of Indian Railways.

Initially, the rakes will be inducted and run in the 2 main coal loading Zones of IR i.e. South East Central coal sector and East Coast circuit. These rakes will be inducted in circuits for transporting coal from MCL Talcher & IB area and SECL to Paradip/Dharma ports, Vishakhapatnam area and the power houses of Nagpur/Raipur region.

Under this strategic partnership, the wagons will be procured by Indian Railways on behalf of CIL, the maintenance of these wagons will be done by Railways at its own cost. Also, the brake vans will be provided by Railways itself.
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