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HISTORY
Raniganj Coalfield, which falls under
E.C.L. is the birth place of coal mining in the Country. In 1774,
first mining operation in the Country was started in this Coalfield by
Sumner & Heatly. In 1820, first Coal Company M/s. Alexander &
Company was established. In 1835, first Indian Enterprise i.e.
M/s. Carr & Tagore Company was formed. In 1843, the first
joint stock Coal Company i.e. M/s. Bengal Coal Company was
formed. Since then, underground coal mining operation had been
continuing in Raniganj Coalfields by numerous small owners. Raniganj
Coalfield remained the principal producer of coal in India in
19th Century and considerable period of the 20th Century.
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Birth
Place of Coal
Mining
in the Country
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NATIONALISATION
AND AFTER
In
1973, all Non-Coking Coal Mines were
nationalized and brought under Eastern Division of Coal Mines Authority
Limited. In 1975 Eastern Coalfields Limited, a Subsidiary of Coal
India Limited (C.I.L) was formed and inherited all the private sector
coal mines of Raniganj Coalfields
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ECL
Headquarter at
SANCTORIA
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GEOGRAPHIC
LOCATION & AREA
ECL’s total
command area is 1620 Sq.Kms.
It is situated in two States – West Bengal and Jharkhand. Area of
Raniganj Coalfield is 1530 Sq. Kms spreading over Burdwan, Birbhum,
Bankura and Purulia Districts in West Bengal and Dhanbad District in
Jharkhand. Saherjuri Coalfield in Deoghar District of Jharkhand
is having an area of 10 Sq.Kms is being worked as SP Mines Area under
ECL. Hura Coalfields in Godda District of Jharkhand is also under
ECL having an area of 80 Sq.Kms. ECL’s largest opencast mine Rajmahal
is being operated here. Heart of Raniganj Coalfield is however,
in Burdwan District bounded by Ajoy River in North and Damodar River in
South. Kasta Coalfields is located on the North of Ajoy while
Mejia and Parbelia are on South of Damodar River. In Dhanbad
Distgrict, Mugma field lies on the west of Barakar River.Formation of
coal seems has occurred mainly in two sequence at ECL – Raniganj
measures & Barakar measures. Raniganj measures covers the
entire coalfield of Raniganj – Pandaveswar, Kajora, Jhanjra Bankola,
Kenda, Sonepur, Kunustoria, Satgram, Sripur, Sodepur & Partly at
Salanpur Areas. Barakar measures covers two areas Salanpur &
Mugma Areas, SP Mines & Rajmahal Areas are mainly related to
Barakar measure & Talchair series).
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Click on the map to see enlarged map
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At
present ECL has 105 no. of operating mines out of which 88 are
underground mines, 17 are opencast mines. The existing manpower in
Eastern Coalfields Limited as on 1.4.2010 is 85617, out of
which female employees are 7750 (9.05%).
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Underground
Coal Mine
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As
on 1.4.2008, the total coal reserve in ECL command area upto 600 metre
depth is 40.648 Billion tone out of which 23.572 billion tone is in the
State of West Bengal and 17.126 Billion tone is in the State of
Jharkhand. Total proved reserve in the state of West Bengal is
11.423 billion tonne and 4.103 billion tone is in the State of
Jharkhand.
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BEST QUALITY
NON-COKING COAL
The
Raniganj measures coal has special characteristics containing the best
type of non-coking coal reserves in the country with average ash
percentage of less than 20%. The main features of this coal are
high volatile content, long flame, quick ignition and high heat value.
All the heat intensive industries like glass, ceramics, fertilizers,
refractories, forging etc use Raniganj coal. Other Industries
also prefer Raniganj coal. The major portion of export coal from
the country is contributed from Raniganj coalfield. Raniganj coal
which is the most important by way of its higher quality, low ash
content and its requirement under MOEF stipulations, is most suited to
Power Utilities for replacing the import quantity. Due to its
unique characteristics Raniganj coal has high demand in the market
throughout the Country.
Barakar measures coals are low moisture, high fixed carbon, low sulphur
& are suitable for modern power houses & other small scale
industries.
ECL has earned highest gain over notified price (Rs. 188 crore) from
e-auction during the year 2008-09, but the gain over notified
price in 2009-10 was only 91.60.
New chapter opened through MoU with DVC, WBPDCL,NTPC & other
power utilities where coal will be supplied at mutually agreed price
considering the cost of production & imported price of coal to
recover the loss of u/g mines at Raniganj field producing higher grades
for making them sustainable.
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E.C.L.
produces best
quality
non-coking coal
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The total coal production of ECL at the time of nationalization was
around 21 million tonnes, of which over 19 million tonnes was from
underground mines and the rest from manual quarries. Immediately after
nationalization, efforts were made to improve production level with
addition of inputs by way of both short-term and long term investment
resulting into increase in production. However, owing to
suspension of operation of number of mines/ units on the ground
of exhaustion of coal reserves in working seams, on safety ground
as well as being uneconomic and problem of land acquisition for
depillaring with caving as well as gradual reduction of loader strength
production from underground mines could not be sustained and got
reduced considerably and ultimately attained at a level of 8.395
million tonnes in 08-09. However, the declining trend of underground
production has been arrested from 07-08 with
a marginal growth in 08-09.
In order to sustain and augment the underground production a road map
has been formulated envisaging mechanization of manual mines by way of
introduction of SDL/LHD in loading operation covering more mines
wherever practically feasible. As on 31.3.2010 company is
deploying 152 nos. of SDL and 24 nos. of LHD.
In 2009-10, 40 nos. standard height SDLs had been received and
commissioned. During 2010-11 procurement action has been taken
for 21 nos. of standard height SDLs, 5 nos. low height SDLs and 26 nos.
of LHDs.
Apart from this, for augmentation of underground production three mines
have been identified for introduction of Mass production technology by
way of deployment Continuous Miner with shuttle Car on risk/gain
sharing basis. At the first instance Continuous Miners Package
was introduced at Jhanjra Project in collaboration with M/s. Joy Mining
Machinery Limited on risk/gain sharing basis in Sept. 2007 and is
running successfully at present. For deployment of another
Continuous Miner at Sarpi UG mine of Bankola Area agreement with M/s.
Joy Mining Machinery Limited has been done on 6.4.2009. Part of the
consignment i.e. Shuttle Car Load Centre and Quad Bolter have arrived
at site in the last week of April 2010 and have been assembled at
Jhanjra workshop. The main equipment i.e. the Continuous Miner
and Feeder Breaker have also reached Kolkata port on 26.5.2010.
Arrangements are being done for their inland transport to the site.
For introduction of 2nd set of Continuous miner at Jhanjra, project
report has been approved by ECL Board and approved by CIL Board in Feb
2009. Global tender has been floated. Techno-commercial Part has been
opened and a technical committee was formed by competent authority for
evaluation of technical eligibility. Technical committee has
submitted its report on 19.4.2010. Commercial evaluation by Tender
Committee is under progress. In addition to this, High Power PSLW set
is also proposed to be introduced at R-VI seam of Jhanjra for
mechanized production from Longwall operation. Global Tender has been
floated. A technical committee was formed by competent authority to
evaluate technical eligibility. Technical committee meeting has
been held on 20.5.2010 and report is still awaited.
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Power
Plant-Core Sector
Principal Consumer
Rajmahal
Opencast Project
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In order to
meet the growing demand of coal of the consumers, Eastern Coalfields
Limited intends to increase coal production from both Opencast and
Underground Mines from the existing coal production of 30.067 Million
tonne in 2009-10 to an optimum level of 34.00 million tone in 2011-12.
Target of coal production in 2010-11 is 33.00 million tonne and OB
removal target is 55.00 million cu.m. Company achieved a profit of Rs.
333.40 crore during 2009-10. In addition to mechanization of manual
mines by way of introduction of SDL/LHD, Continuous Miner is going to
be introduced at Sarpi underground project very soon.
Introduction of 2nd Continuous Miner and PSLW (2nd phase) at Jhanjra
project are also under process.
Ten number of new reorganized Underground Projects
have been taken up for implementation during X Plan period and seven
number of underground projects have proposed to be taken up in XI Plan
period to replace and augment the existing underground
production. Out of 10 UG Projects identified in the X Plan
period, production from 3 projects are contributing and rest of the
Projects are in different stages of implementation.
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A
Dragline
machine in
Opencast project
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Increase in Open Cast
Production:
(1)
Global Tender floated twice for Rajmahal Expansion from 10.5
million tonnes to 17 million tonnes, could not be finalised. Hence,
tender was cancelled. Revised project report has been approved by
Ministry of Coal in Sept. 2009 with a capital investment of Rs. 153.82
crore under partial outsourcing option. Project Report has
been approved by MOC in Sept. 2009. Pre-NIT meeting based on draft
tender document was held in Dec. 2009. Final NIT has been prepared and
awaiting approval of ECL Board.
Simlong Open Cast Mine, where operation had been suspended during 2002,
has been restarted for extraction of remaining 0.9 million tonne of
coal and to facilitate starting of neighbouring Chuperbhita Open Cast
Project
(2) Coal India Ltd. will consider the Project
Report of Chuperbhita for 4 MTY and Hurra – ‘C’ for 3 MTY after
obtaining forest clearance. Company is pursuing the matter for
obtaining forest clearance expeditiously. Efforts are being made
to operate Chuperbhita OC and Hura-C OC Projects in the
non-forest area. Tendering for opening up a patch in non-forest area in
respect of Hura-C OC is in progress.
(3) ECL Board has approved Project Report of Sonepur
Bazari combined OC of 8 MTY with an investment of Rs. 495.09 crore in
January’2008. The revised project report for Sonepur Bazari combined OC
is under preparation at CMPDIL, RI-I, Asansol. However, to augment the
production of Sonepur Bazari, an outsourced OC patch with a surface
miner has started with production of 1 MTY.
(4) For Expansion of Chitra Project to 2.5 million
tonnes, Coal India Board has accorded its approval to the Project
Report with capital investment of Rs. 112.69 crore during August’2007.
Estimate for outsourcing of OB removal is under scrutiny.
(5) ECL in totality surveyed off 173 equipment
against which 122 have been procured, ordered for 15 nos. and tendered
for 34 nos.
Outsourcing of
patches:
During 2009-10, company produced 4.336 million tone of coal from
outsourcing OC patches. As on date, company is operating 8 outsourcing
patches. More number of patches have been identified & proposed to
be worked in future like Narainkuri, Bonbahal, Deep mining zone of
Rajmahal, Samla, Madhaipur etc.
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©
2009 EASTERN
COALFIELDS
LIMITED
DISCLAIMER
:
Information on this site is believed to be accurate but ECL disclaims
any liability for any errors or omissions that may occur from time to
time. |
| Sanctoria,
Post:Dishergarh, Dist. Burdwan-713333, W.B, India ~
Tel:0341-2520052-53,2520414 ~ Fax:0341-2523574 ~ Gram:EASTCOAL. |
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