One of the heaviest mobile machines on earth – The Walking Dragline 24/96 manufactured, supplied, erected & commissioned by the Heavy Engineering Corporation ltd was dedicated to the nation on May9, 2014 at Northern Coalfields limited (NCl), Amlohri project.
Now onwards, the machine shall be called “Abhimanyu”, the name given to it by NCl. This machine of 2000T weight takes 20 months for manufacturing and 18 months for erection & commissioning. The machine has been transported to the site in components in 44 nos. of trailers and was erected at site. After successful testing, the machine walked to the site 3.5 km away from the erection site. The machine is now under successful operation contributing to the production of coal so as to serve the energy needs of the people. It is expected to facilitate coal production of 1 million ton per year worth approx. Rs 400crore.
The Walking Dragline is used in open cast mines. It is used to remove the Over Burden so as to expose the coal seams. HEC make Dragline 24/96 has bucket capacity of 24 cum and can operate at a single position with radius of approx. 88m. It is capable to remove 4.3 Million cubic meter of Overburden per year. It walks at a speed of 0.24 km/hr. Walking Dragline, though involves huge initial investment, but is cost saving as it does not require additional support of dumpers, trucks etc.
HEC had secured orders against stiff global competition for 3 nos. of Draglines from NCl. The value at which the order was secured for each Dragline was Rs 153 Crores. The status of other two Draglines are: one under final erection and the other under dispatch.