BCCL under CCI lens for mine radar tender
Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL), a subsidiary of Coal India (CIL), has come under the Competition Commission of India (CCI) scanner for floating a vendor-biased global tender against the country’s competition rule, thereby compromising the safety of mines.
A source in the CCI told FE that BCCL floated a tender in November 2012 asking for Mine Slope Stability Monitoring Radar. But the specifications given were out dated and not vendor neutral. The specification only supported one technology — Real Aperture Radar (RAR) system. Only one company across the globe still uses this technology to supply mine safety apparatus and none of the mining giants worldwide rely on it to ensure mine safety.
Mine Slope Stability Monitoring Radar is used to monitor mine slopes, dumps and high walls formed due to overburdening or soil removal during excavation. The radar system detects movement of overburdens and warns of an impending danger so that people and equipment are removed before a slope breaks and blocks a pit head.
The latest technology used for monitoring the stability of mine slopes detect sub-millimetre changes to give an early warning of an impending disaster.
A CCI official said BCCL’s tender doesn’t conform to the director general of mine safety’s (DGMS’s) circular, which asks for adoption of suitable and latest technology for ensuring mine safety. BCCL should have reviewed the technology, it was ordering for, with the mining electronics department of Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI). But it did not bother to
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