Eastern coalfields (ECL): Gearing up with modern era

Eastern coalfields Ltd (ECL), the company that operates the oldest coalfield in the country, is in for a makeover that seeks to raise output and respond to sectoral dynamics which have ensured the entry of the private sector into commercial mining. A unit of the state-owned Coal India Ltd, ECL has undertaken a host of measures to mechanise its operations and usher in a new work culture, investing almost Rs 2,000 crore as part of the modernisation programme. For those who didn’t know, coal was first mined in India at the company’s Raniganj coalfield in 1774. It is also the mine acquired by Dwarkanath Tagore, the grandfather of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, in 1832.

While its performance in the ongoing fiscal has been impacted due to excessive rain and other issues, FY19 saw ECL reach several milestones. It achieved 107% of the output target it had set for the year, surpassing the 50-MT mark, a first in its long history. Its Jhanjra project mined 3.4 MT of coal, which represented the highest output from an underground mine in the country in FY19. The company also performed better than CIL’s other subsidiaries on the main operational parameters, with coal production, offtake and removal of over-burden growing 15.1%, 15.6% and 6%, respectively. In December 2019, it bettered its past record on overburden removal with a figure of 14.6 cubic metre.