SECL proposes Rs. 331-cr investment for Mahamaya Open Cast Project.

The South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL)—the largest coal producing subsidiary of public sector Coal India Ltd (CIL) has proposed a capital investment of Rs331 crore for developing the Mahamaya Open Cast Project in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh with annual coal production of 1.5 million tonnes.

The project report of the Mahamaya Open Cast Project had been prepared by Regional Institute No. 5 of Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, officials stated.

The SECL is now looking to get the financial appraisal done for the project.

Notably, the company will also start drilling of 100 mm diametre blast holes in coal at Gare Palma IV/2&3 Open Cast Mine in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.

It may also be mentioned here that SECL would 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 area.

Notably, the SECL 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.

The initial training is imparted to all new entrant and refresher training to all employees as per statute. Thrust on training and retraining of Supervisors, Support Personnel, HEMM operators and contractor’s workers was maintained as a strategy to reduce accidents due to roof/side falls in underground mines and accidents in opencast mines and at surface of mines, they stated.

Apart from statutory training being provided to employees of SECL under the Mines Vocational Training Rules, 1966 at the time of intake and refresher training at regular interval at VTCs at Areas, need based training is also imparted at Area level and at Management Development Institute of SECL HQ, Bilaspur.

Executives are also undergoing special training at IICM, Ranchi & other educational institutions / organizations, officials stated.

Notably, Coal production in Chhattisgarh stood at 115.19 million tonnes (MT) during 2014-15 ( provisional), 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 Centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) each with the states of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh for critical coal connectivity projects to improve transportation of coal .

The company is 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.

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