The Hindu Business Line : South Eastern Coalfields ties up with US co for high wall tech

Plans ahead
Mr Sinha said SECL has firmed up a Rs 3,000-crore investment plan for the 11th Plan for raising its total annual coal production from 88.5 mt to at least 111 mt.

Kolkata April 11 South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL), the largest profit-making and coal-producing subsidiary of Coal India Ltd, has entered into an agreement with a US company for high wall "manless" underground mining technology, which is not yet operational in the country.

The Chairman & Managing Director, Mr Birendra Kumar Sinha, told Business Line that the technology has capability to produce a minimum of seven million tonnes (mt) per annum from a single mine. The technology is being brought on hiring basis, entailing an investment of about Rs 200 crore. The agreement has a production guarantee enabling suppliers to get back the cost of equipment and cost of services from sales.

Output target

Mr Sinha said SECL has firmed up a Rs 3,000-crore investment plan for the 11th Plan for raising its total annual coal production from 88.5 mt to at least 111 mt. Of the targeted production, about 24 mt would come from underground mines as against the existing production of about 18 mt and the rest from opencast mines.

It was pointed out that the company plans to start 24 new coal projects during the 11th Plan with an objective of creating about 52 mt of fresh capacity per annum.

Expressing confidence on the company's strength and capability of its 84,500 workforce, Mr Sinha indicated that almost all expansion jobs would be done departmentally. The company might only outsource some jobs which are new technology oriented. Citing instances, he said the existing long wall face at Balarampur underground mine would be replaced by the latest long wall technology with a panel length of 120 metres and a new short wall technology with a panel length of 80 metres would be installed at the same mine. Both long wall faces would be imported from China against a production guarantee. This apart, low-cost continuous miners would be introduced in a series of underground mines.

He also said the entire fleet of side discharge loader (SDL) numbering about 400 would be replaced by load hauled dumper in phases. Altogether 50 such SDL would be replaced in 2007-08. This would expedite the loading and unloading of coal.

Power venture

As part of value-addition of coal, SECL plans to generate power jointly with Neyveli Lignite Corporation.

An MoU has been signed between the two companies to set up a 50:50 joint venture for setting up a 2,000-MW thermal power station at Raigarh in Chhattisgarh, for which preliminary work has begun.

The company also plans to explore the possibility of commercially exploiting coal bed methane (CBM) gas from the Korba coalfields.

The Ranchi-based Central Mine Planning & Design Institute has been assigned to prepare an exploratory report for the CBM project.

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