CAG issues directives to CIL over info project delay

Coal India Ltd?s (CIL) failure to fully implement its CoalNet IT project has prompted the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to issue directives so that the coal major, which has recently graduated to a Navratna company, makes up for the delay.

The Rs 120-crore project was planned for having an integrated information system between the coal ministry, CIL headquarters and headquarters of its seven subsidiaries. All these offices were supposed to be linked with the 473 CIL mines through data, voice ties and videoconferencing facilities. The project was planned in 2001 but there has been very little progress so far, for which the CAG has pulled it up. CIL chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya told FE that although the CAG has held the company and its subsidiaries responsible for the delay, the onus is on IIT Kharagpur, on whose part there was a breach of contract.

The project was contracted to IIT Kharagpur in July 2001 and the time limit given to put the entire system in place was two years. The contract also included maintenance support by the IIT. ?The contract was drawn in such terms that IIT Kharagpur would not outsource the job. But it made a breach of contract and engaged a third party in implementing the project. So CIL had to foreclose it?, Bhattacharyya said.

The CAG has observed that there was lack of proper planning and monitoring on the part of CIL. The subsidiaries did not make efforts to involve their user companies and develop the business process, which would have brought more clarity in the governance system.

CoalNet, comprising 13 modules, was to be implemented in three phases. In the first phase, the coal ministry, CIL headquarters and headquarters of the seven subsidiaries were to be linked by data and voice ties, along with a videoconferencing facility. In the second phase, the project was to be extended, to 78 areas, which cover CIL?s 473 coal mines. In the third phase, the system was to be connected to all the collieries.

However, only the Rs 40-crore first phase has been put on stream after seven years. The CAG has pointed out that there has not been any visible result of its implementation.

Bhattacharyya said that Kharagpur IIT would no more be the implementing agency for the project. Some other firm would be involved in it via a tender to be floated shortly. In the meantime, ECIL may be roped in to maintain the system already in place, Bhattacharyya said.