The Southern Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) hopes to reduce losses from underground coal mining production by 50% in this fiscal.
?Though SECL had a profit of Rs 1,800 crore in 2006-07, but we were incurring losses from underground coal mining production. We plan to reduce these losses by at least 50%, this fiscal? said B K Sinha, CMD, SECL.
Even, the government is considering levying a cess on opencast coal mining to incentivise and subsidise underground mining operations.
SECL has suffered a loss of Rs 130 crore in 2006-07 due to underground coal mining production. In 2006-07, SECL, produced 16 million tonne of underground mined coal which is approximately 40% of total underground production. The country?s overall loss from underground coal mining in 2006-07 was Rs 2,500 crore.
?In XIth five year plan, we are focusing on augmenting underground coal production. For this, we have imported from America, 42 cubic meter excavator along with two 40 tonne dumpers. These new machines will help in reducing our cost of production also augment underground production? BK Sinha, CMD, SECL told FE.
Additionally, we are importing longwall, shortwall and highwall technology, which are likely to cost approximately Rs 3,000 crore, he added. Highwall technology is a man-less technology and it will be adopted for the first time in the country.
SECL will also use blasting glaring technology. This machine is entirely controlled by remote and thus reduces the risk to life. SECL is one of the largest opencast coal producer and the largest underground coal producer in the country. It produced 88.5 million tonne of coal in 2006-07 compared to 83 million tonne in 2005-06, there by showing a growth of 6.6%.