The plan to deploy heavy machinery for ramping up output in one of the underground mines of Coal India (CIL) has hit the Coronavirus roadblock, as officials of the Chinese company contracted to commission the mass production technology is not being able to come to India because of travel restrictions.
To boost production at CIL’s Khottadih underground mine in West Bengal, the company planned to commission the ‘continuous miner’ machine which requires an estimated investment of Rs 127 crore. To that end, it had signed a contract agreement with China’s CMATL-SXTD-CMML consortium on a ‘risk and gain’ basis in September 2018 and the equipment was expected to be commissioned in the ongoing financial year. However, sources privy to the development said that the outbreak of Coronavirus has indefinitely delayed the plan.
