(ET)
State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) has floated a global tender for setting up the country’s first coal to methanol plant in West Bengal at an investment of Rs 6,000 crore. The company is in dialogue with Indian Oil Corp and other government-owned oil companies for long-term tie up for marketing of the methanol.
The project envisaged to be set up through a surface coal gasification route will be based on the Build-Own-Operate (BOO) model. Through the tender CIL proposes to select the BOO operator for the life span of the plant, which is expected to be 25 years.
“This is a part of implementing the Methanol Economy program of the government aimed at reducing the country’s oil import bill”, said a senior executive of the company. The proposed coal-to-methanol plant would be set up at CIL-owned Dankuni Coal Complex (DCC) in West Bengal, currently run by its subsidiary South Eastern Coalfields Ltd.
