In an effort to popularise use of heavy duty opencast machineries, Coal India (CIL) has decided to specify equipment sizes in all large mine development and operation (MDO) contracts, to be awarded in the future.

The move is primarily aimed at reducing the environmental impact of mining. Use of high capacity equipment such as shovels and dump-trucks leads to greater fuel efficiency, lesser emission and reduces suspended particles in mining zone.

“In future, the size of the equipment will be specified in all tender documents. We will not allow use of lower-sized equipment,” AK Debnath, Chairman and Managing Director of Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd (CMPDI), said. CMPDI is the consultancy arm of CIL.

Coal India currently outsources nearly 60 per cent of its annual production (494 million tonnes in 2014-15) from mining contractors. This includes a large number of smaller deposits mined by politically backed local cartels, and a couple of MDOs.

Majority of these contractors operate on labour cost arbitrage and use smaller equipment to keep capital costs low.

This apart, the strong transport cartels often force CIL to opt for sub-20 tonne tippers, cut out for use in road construction, in moving overburden (OB) material in company operated mines. This leads to under-utilisation of high capacity shovels.

CIL has been trying to break this nexus for sometime without much success. Strong resistance from local mining contractors saw Singrauli-based Northern Coalfields (NCL) backtracking on its initiative to enforce equipment capacity norms two years ago.

Mechanisation drive

Though CIL has a disproportionately large workforce of nearly 4 lakh people, the company largely depends on outsourcing to add nearly 400 million tonnes capacity in the next four years (908 mt by 2019-20). This is primarily to keep a check on the production cost.

To ensure best practices, CIL is, therefore, focussing on appointing global miners as MDOs and specify use of technology. “We will not allow tippers to be used as dumpers,” Debnath said.

The mechanisation drive, however, is not limited to dumpers.

The CMPDI Chairman said the company was installing rapid-loading systems in all large projects. This includes in-pit belt conveying system that takes coal right from the mine to silos for automated loading in wagons.

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