South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) has produced 157.35 million tonnes (MT) of coal in financial year 2018-19, retaining the top spot among Coal India Limited (CIL) entities.
The company, with headquarters in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district, has posted a growth of 8.73 per cent over last financial year. The total output of SECL is about 26 per cent of the total coal produced by CIL.
SECL has been the flagship company of CIL since inception in 1985, though Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) has been its closest contender for this position.
In 2017-18, SECL produced 144.7 MT of coal while MCL’s output was 143.1 MT. While SECL has concentrated on increasing production, mining in MCL territories was reportedly affected because of the environment, labour and other local issues.
SECL surpassed MCL by 13 MT coal and was 55 MT ahead of Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL), which held third spot among CIL entities.
With coal reserves in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, SECL operates as many as 89 mines. Of these, 35 are in Madhya Pradesh and 54 are in Chhattisgarh. Besides, the company has a coal carbonization plant, namely Dankuni Coal Complex (DCC) at Dankuni, West Bengal on lease basis from CIL.
SECL’s major mining areas including Gevra, Dipka, Kusmunda, Sohagpur produced the highest ever coal since the inception of the company. While Gevra produced 42.25 MT, Dipka and Kusmunda recorded 35 MT and 40 MT of coal production respectively. The total coal production from Korba Coalfields which include Korba, Gevra, Dipka, Raigarh-Mand and Kusmunda area, is 134.21 MT of coal; Whereas the CIC field (including Sohagpur, Bhatgaon and 6 other areas) produced 23.13 MT of coal.
CIL’s most of the companies including Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), North Eastern Coalfields increased the output only Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) registered negative growth.
