NTPC Mining Limited, a hundred per cent subsidiary of National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited, has set a target to produce 34 million tonne coal in the financial year 2023-24.

 It was said by Regional Executive Director (Coal Mining), Partha Mazumder  during an interactive session organised by NTPC Coal Mining, headquarter, Ranchi with the local media persons from the print, electronic and online media on Sunday. On the occasion, he welcomed the august gathering of media persons and conveyed his gratitude for the constant support. Addressing the entire gamut of media persons he shared the key highlights of NTPC Coal Mines and its performance. 

Mazumder said, NTPC Limited, the Country’s leading integrated energy producer, had a substantial 148 per cent increase in coal production from its four operational captive mines in April 2023, if compared with the production achieved in April 2022. The company produced 2.75 million tonnes (MT) of coal during the month, a marked improvement from 1.11 MT in April 2022.

 “NTPC also reached its all-time high in monthly coal despatch, with 2.95 million tonne in April 2023, representing a 140 per cent increase over the previous year. The company’s coal production for financial year 23 totalled 23.2 million tonnes, a 65 per cent growth compared to the prior year, driven by output from its four operational coal mines located in Jharkhand, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh,” said Mazumdar. Briefing the media, he added that in the last concluded financial year, coal production started from Chatti Bariatu mine, South pit (extension) and West Pit of Talaipalli coal mine, which added more coal production and supply to NTPC power stations with good quality of coal from NTPC Coal Mines. 

The significant uptick in coal production is credited to the adoption of digital initiatives by NTPC’s coal mining teams, which have elevated operational excellence and improved safety in mining operations. Key digital initiatives include a digitized safety management plan called e-SMP; a mobile app for safety, Sachet an; People and Machinery Tracking system in the mine; Integrated Coal Management System and others.

Mazumder has conveyed to the media persons that, NTPC has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary, NTPC Mining Limited. (NML) and Ministry of Coal, Government of India has recently given the permission for transfer of NTPC's coal mines to NML. Now the asset transfer processes shall be carried out.

 NML Corporate Communication Head, Amit Behra said through an audio visual presentation that under CSR, apart from the community development activities being undertaken by the coal mining projects of NTPC, Coal Mining headquarter took up an initiative to sponsor 80 youths including 4 girls from all coal mining project areas and its vicinity from the states of Jharkhand, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh for skill development training in two courses Machine Operator Injection Moulding and Machine Operator Plastic Processing. The courses were carried out in association with Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering and Technology (CIPET), Ranchi for a duration of 6 months with nearly 100 per cent job placement, he added.

“NTPC coal mining also acknowledges the responsibility of reducing the carbon footprint. The working areas are equipped with dust suppression and water-sprinkling systems. The monitoring of emissions, SOx, NOx, particulate matters, and others are being done continuously, and tree plantation is being done at all available opportunities and new initiatives are being taken for installation of solar panel at mines overburdened area. Electrically operated HEMMs have also been introduced in the mines,” said Behra.

Coal transportation by road has been reduced by operationalizing a conveyor system, one of the largest in Asia, at Pakri Barwadih mine and use of rail transport from pit head to power plant at Dulanga and Talaipalli mines.

The media interaction was attended by CGM (SSC-C and M) , Naveen Jain, GM(Technical Services), TK Konar, GM(Human Resources), KS Murthy, AGM(Engineering), Apruba Ghosh , AGM(Mining), Ranjeet Prasad and AGM(HR), Ziaur Rahman.