The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
TALCHER, OCT 28, 2021
“Coal India Limited has successfully stepped up fuel supply to meet the increased power demand and arrest shortage of fuel at thermal power plants which has happened due to increased cost of imported coal,” said Union Coal & Mines Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday, while reviewing the mining and dispatch operations at Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).
“Coal production and dispatch have now increased, and we are supplying about 2.2 million tonnes of coal in a day to the power plants which is itself a record,” Joshi informed the media persons on the sidelines of his visit to Talcher coalfields, which has the largest coal reserves in the country.
The Minister, while appreciating MCL’s performance in coal production and dispatch, said, “We are trying to further improve coal production and dispatch from the company.”
During his visit to Talcher coalfields, Joshi inspected mining operations at Balram open cast project in Hingula Area and coal dispatch operations through railway sidings.
Accompanied by MoS Coal & Mines Raosaheb Patil Dhanve, Joshi held discussions with MCL and Railway officials at the railway sidings. The Ministers emphasized on further reducing turn-around time of railway wagons.
They also interacted with the coal miners and motivated them for increasing coal production and dispatch. Best performing workers were also felicitated by the Union Ministers.
Coal India Limited Chairman Pramod Agrawal, MCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director PK Sinha and Director (Technical/Operations) Shri OP Singh accompanied the Minister.
Earlier, Joshi and Dhanve were greeted on their arrival at Hingula Area by MCL Director (Finance) KR Vasudevan, Director (Personnel) Keshav Rao, Director (Technical/Projects & Planning) and Chief Vigilance Office PK Patel.
Joshi also laid the foundation stone of Shramik Gaurav Jal Udyan near Balram opencast project. “Established beside the beautiful lake which is built over reclaimed land of a coal mine, this site has potential to be developed as a major tourist spot,” stated the minister.
MCL, the leading coal supplying company in the country, contributes about 25 per cent to the total coal production of Coal India.
To further enhance coal dispatch capacity and rapid movement of dry fuel to consumers, the company is aggressively implementing FMC (First Mile Connectivity) projects with capital outlay of Rs 3,600 crore by 2024.
During the current financial year, MCL supplied over 94 million tonnes of dry fuel to consumers, registering a growth of about 21 percent over last year.
Beginning the day of his Odisha visit today, Joshi inspected the coal loading system at Paradip Port along with Danve. He directed the PPT officials to fully utilise the facilities to increase coal transportation through the sea route and asked officials to explore possibilities of using Paradip port as a coal hub.
He also visited the site of Rail Receival System near Paradip Port wherein coal is unloaded with the help of wagon-tipplers. The minister said that this system of unloading is efficient, helps in saving time and demurrage charges, while also reducing the spread of coal dust.
