(The Gist of PIB) Coal India Arm Western Coalfields opens 3 new coal mines [JUNE-2020]

(The Gist of PIB) Coal India Arm Western Coalfields opens 3 new coal mines

Coal India Subsidiary Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) opened 3 new coal mines in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh having combined annual production capacity of 2.9 million tonnes (MT).

The company will infuse total capital expenditure (Capex) of Rs. 849 crores on these projects and generate direct employment for 647 persons.
WCL has to produce 75 MT of coal by the financial year of 2023-24 and opening of these mines will certainly add to the efforts of the company reaching this milestone and will help Coal India achieve the target of 1 billion tonnes (BT) coal production by the financial year of 2023-24.
The three mines which WCL has opened, are
Adasa Mine, an underground to open cast mine, in Nagpur Area of Maharashtra,
Sharda underground Mine in Kanhan Area and
Dhankasa underground mine in Pench Area of Madhya Pradesh.

The company launched a surveillance System named ‘WCL EYE’ to monitor operations of 15 major mines of the company round the clock. It will also help monitor coal stocks.
WCL has launched “Mission 100 Days” a roadmap to achieve targets for the current fiscal. This mission will also help the company accomplish mid and long-term goals. The company’s coal production and offtake target for the current fiscal is 62 MT.

It also launched an App named SAMVAAD to connect with its employees and stakeholders on this occasion.

The company has already opened 20 new and expansion projects in the last 6 years with over Rs. 5300 crores of capital expenditure and 5250 direct employment to land losers.
WCL had produced 57.64 MT of Coal in financial year 2019-20, up over 8% in comparison to the last fiscal.