Team News Riveting
Raipur, January 17
Chairman of Coal India (CIL) Limited Pramod Agarwal (IAS) today morning reached Bilaspur and chaired a high-level meeting with the officials of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) to review the company’s performance.
The Bilaspur-Chhattisgarh-based arm of CIL had set a target to produce 182 million tonnes (MT) of coal in the current financial year 2022-23 (FY23). Last year, it failed to meet the target. The company recorded 142.51 MT production in the financial year 2021-22 amidst battling serious challenges inflicted by unpredictable monsoon and the second wave of COVID.
The state-run coal miner, CIL, has been eyeing SECL output to meet its target. The Chairman reviewed various issues related to the company’s production and dispatch. He was accompanied by his Technical Secretary and ED (coordination) M K Singh.
In the meeting SECL CMD Prem Sagar Mishra, Director (Finance) G. Srinivasan, Director Technical (Planning/Project) S N Kapri, Director (Personnel) Debashish Acharya, Heads of major departments and General Managers of all areas were present.
Mishra briefed about the various activities related to the company’s operations through a powerpoint presentation. SECL has registered over 15 percent increase in coal production compared to last year in the first three quarters of the current fiscal. The company’s production during April to December was 14.8 MT more compared to the same period of last year.
Besides, SECL has registered a record 33.08 percent growth in overburden removal during the period. In a special effort, SECL has issued Letter of Acceptance (LoA) for operation of 3 mines on MDO mode. Of it, Ketki UG mine located in Surajpur district of Chhattisgarh became the first underground mine to start coal production on MDO mode of CIL.
The company is also in the process of operating four closed and abandoned mines on a revenue sharing model while initiatives have also been taken towards setting up a power plant of SECL at Chachai under Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh. SECL has provided employment in 647 land acquisition cases during January to December, highest in any year since the inception of the company. Its positive results have been seen in land acquisition in mega projects of the company.
Discussing various issues related to dispatch during the review meeting, Chairman exhorted to work towards improving performance with better planning and quick decision making so that fuel supply demand in the country could be realised.
