The Sukma district administration has commenced preparations to facilitate the NMDC ltd’s underground slurry pipeline works from Shabari to Bailadila in insurgency-infested Bastar division.
A return and high presssure pipeline would also be laid from Shabari to Bailadila by the company.The pipelines would be crossing rivers and nullahs at 11 locations in Sukma district. A meeting of Sukma district administration and NMDC officials from Kirandul was held here to discuss the work to be taken up for the project.
It may be recalled that a marathon ‘Slurry Pipeline Transportation System’ has been proposed for transportation of Pellet Feed Concentrate from Bailadila to Vizag via Jagdalpur along National and State Highways with a provision of partial off-take at NMDC ltd’s integrated steel plant coming up at Nagarnar in Bastar division.
The concentrate is intended for making pellets required for feeding to NMDC's Steel Plant at Nagarnar, officials stated.
For part of this project, investment proposals involving 2 MTPA Ore Processing Plant at Bacheli, 15 MTPA Slurry Pipeline system from Bacheli to Nagarnar and 2 MTPA Pellet Plant at Nagarnar has been approved by the NMDC Board of Directors, they stated.
Other pre-project activities such as detailed route survey, Environmental clearance, Forest clearance crossing permission from Railways and National Highway Authorities, MoU with Chhattisgarh Government for sanction of utilities (Water and Electrical power) have also been taken up and are in progress, officials stated.
Notably, NMDC has already commenced the process of building necessary infrastructure for its proposed 3.0 MTPA steel plant coming up at Nagarnar.
The company has commenced construction of new block station, staff quarters, associated P-way and S&T works in connection with the construction of Railway siding. The total cost of the infrastructure for which the tender had been floated is Rs 56.06 crore which is to be completed in a span of one year.
NMDC also recently commissioned its new iron ore mine in Chhattisgarh’s extreme insurgency-hit Dantewada district.
The mine- Bailadila Iron Ore Deposit 11B, is located in Bailadila hills where the NMDC has already several massive high-quality iron ore mines spread out in Bacheli and Kirandul areas.
The NMDC has developed the mine having iron ore production capacity of 7 Million Tonnes Per Annum (MTPA) with an investment of more than Rs 600 crore.
With the commissioning of 11B Project Mine, NMDC has ramped up production capacity from present level of 25 MTPA to 32 MTPA from Chhattisgarh’s Bailadila Sector.
NMDC ltd's Chairman and Managing Director Narendra Kothari had formally inaugurated the 11B Project in presence of Narendra K. Nanda, Director (Technical), Rabindra Singh, Director (Personnel), T.R.K. Rao, Director (Commercial), P.K.Satpathy, Director (Production, D.S. Ahluwalia, Director (Finance) and other senior officials of NMDC besides senior executives of technological partners.
Kothari after commissioning the mine stated “this is one of the milestones in fulfilling NMDC’s dream to produce more than 100 million tonnes of iron ore and help in achieving the nation’s target of producing 300 million tonnes of steel”.
The unique features of 11B Project is its 3.5 km long single flight regenerative downhill belt conveying system with horizontal and vertical curves.The 11B project features 3000 TPH Capacity Gyratory crusher and 1400 TPH Capacity Cone Crusher.
A Memorandum of Understanding has also been signed between NMDC limited and Union Ministry of Steel, on the commitments of NMDC ltd., pertaining to its performance for the year 2015-16.
The significant parameters of the MoU are production and sale of Iron ore including related Financials, Project Implementation, R & D efforts, Environment Monitoring, Energy Conservation, Quality Compliance, Manpower Productivity, Human Resource Management and Customer Satisfaction.
The company which is India's single largest iron ore producer and exporter will develop a ‘Plant Wide Networking Package’ for the steel plant which would manage every aspect of the steel production process including monitoring of the energy consumption in the plant, they informed. NMDC ltd CMD Narendra Kothari has stated that hot trials of the company's steel plant coming up at Nagarnar would commence by December 2016.
He was providing details of the performance of the country’s largest iron ore producer and exporter to Union Minister for Steel & Mines Narendra Singh Tomar during the latter's visit to the Head Office of NMDC limited in Hyderabad recently.
NMDC is also setting up an elaborate Telecommunication system through Server-based Telephone Exchanges along with remote units on Optical Fibre Cable (OCF) Network for its 3.0 MTPA Integrated Steel Plant at Nagarnar, officials stated.