The South Eastern Coalfields ltd (SECl) will seek financial appraisal of its ‘Conceptual Report’ for setting up of Baroud Coal Washery in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.
The Washery would be built on a Build Operate Maintain (BoM) concept with proposed capital investment of `355.88 crore.
Notably, SECl is also setting up a Coal Washery unit at Kusmunda mines with a capacity of 25 Million Tonnes Per Year (MTY) in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
Notably, the company is also planning to extract coal from the Ketki Underground Mine in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh without any blasting done in the mining process.
The SECl would get a scientific study done for obtaining permission from Directorate General of Mine Safety (DGMS) for the introduction of Continuous Miner or Similar Equipment with Continuous Cutting Technology in the aforesaid mine and strata monitoring as required by DGMS, officials stated.
On the other hand, notably, SECl would also be utilising fixed water sprinkler for dust suppression system at coal stockyard and coal transportation roads at Baroud Open Cast Mine (OCM) of Baroud Sub-Area of Raigarh district.
The company has won prestigious “Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award” Instituted By Ministry Of Environment & Forest and “Jawahar lal Nehru Memorial Award For Excellence In Pollution Control” in New Delhi.
To enhance and maintain the safety awareness among workers Safety Fortnights and special safety drives are observed in mines of SECl.
Awareness and Safety talks in each shift are being practiced on regular basis to develop a safety culture in accordance of “Code of Safe Practices”, officials stated.
This was in comparison to 110.14 million tonnes (actual) coal produced in the State during the previous year.
The State had already produced 27.857 million tonnes of coal during the period April to June 2015 (provisional), officials stated.
As per Annual Plan document 2015-16 of Union Ministry of Coal, the annual target for overall coal production for 2015-16 has been fixed at 700 million tonnes.
As action plan has also been drawn by Coal India ltd. in this regard to achieve production of 1000 Million tonnes by 2019-20, officials stated.
The company intends to get coal extracted from Kusmunda mine by Surface Miners and get it transported through covered conveyor system after the expansion of the mine is completed in Korba district of Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
The Kusmunda Opencast Project will be in a total Mining lease (Ml) area of 3510.348 hectares after the expansion of the project .The company has prepared a detailed action plan for the development of the green belt around mine lease area for Kusmunda Open Cast Expansion.
The company has proposed to develop a Green belt barrier for a width of (75-100 m) around the periphery of the mine in safety zone area, officials stated.Three-tier plantations will be done with native species (neem, semal, palash, amaltas, gulmohar, etc.)
Notably, the South East Central Sector which includes Chhattisgarh, is set to play a key role in Central government’s ambitious coal loading and transportation plans.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed recently between Ministry of Railways and Coal India limited (CIl) which will lead to procurement of 2000 wagons (33 rakes) in the first outgo, officials stated.
The agreement which will result into speedy supply of wagons for coal loading in dedicated circuits.
Initially, the rakes will be inducted and run in the 2 main coal loading Zones of Indian Railways i.e South East Central coal sector and East Coast circuit.
These rakes will be inducted in circuits for transporting coal from MCl Talcher & IB area and SECl to Paradip/Dharma ports, Vishakhapatnam area and the power houses of Nagpur/Raipur region.
Under this strategic partnership, the wagons will be procured by Indian Railways on behalf of CIl, the maintenance of these wagons will be done by Railways at its own cost. Also, the brake vans will be provided by Railways itself.
Coal India ltd is targeting production of 1 billion tonnes of coal by 2020. Wagon availability will be a key factor for achieving this target by Coal India ltd. By signing of the MoU , the Railways and Coal India ltd will be entering into a strategic partnership which would ensure adequate wagon availability for meeting the transportation needs of coal produced by Coal India ltd.
Notably, the Central Government has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding each with the States of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh for critical coal connectivity projects to improve transportation of coal, officials informed.
Agreement for World Bank loan of US $ 1100 million for Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) (Phase-2) has also been signed, they stated.
Freight train with speed of maximum 100 kms per hour, will pass through Chhattisgarh in the East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai).
The train will traverse through the States of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra as the Ministry of Railways has sanctioned implementation of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) with freight train speeds of maximum 100 Kmph.
Development of two key Rail corridors in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh is now set to expand the Railway line network by 45 per cent in the State, officials stated.
The completion of 235-km Dallirajhara-Raoghat-Jagdalpur, East and East-West Rail corridor (300 km) projects will comprise a total of 535 kilometers Railway-line during the next two to four years, they stated.
Chhattisgarh currently has only 1187 route kilometers Railway lines. The State is also set to earn estimated revenue of `51,596 crore from its five mines auctioned among 29 in the country under the provisions of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 during the mining lease period.