Environment-friendly surface miners contributed 92.48 per cent to the total 139.2 million tonne coal produced by Mahanadi Coalfields limited (MCl), ensuring supply of quality sized dry fuel to consumers, particularly power plants across the country.
MCl was the first company in the country to introduce surface miners in coal mining in 1999.
Presently, the company deploys 38 surface miners in Angul, Jharsuguda and Sundergarh districts, which together produced to 138.2 million tonne during year 2016-17.
“Surface miners have augmented quality supply of coal to our consumers, most of which are power plants,” said MCl CMD AK Jha.
Jha said all coal loading points, sidings, sample preparation sites, sample storage rooms and all coal stockyards have been kept under 24x7 CCTV surveillance.
The company is constructing four coal washeries which are expected to be operational by 2020, enabling MCl supply coal of less than 34 per cent ash content to power plants within 500 to 1,000 km.