Ministry of Coal
05-November, 2015
Shri Piyush Goyal Unveils WCL’s Plan to Open 36 Mines in 36 Months
WCL Geared to Produce 100 mt Coal by 2020
Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy said that In order to help CIL to achieve its stupendous coal production target of one billion tonnes by FY 2020, Western Coalfields Limited is planning to enhance its coal production by 150%. Shri Goyal was speaking after unveiling WCL’s roadmap for opening 36 mines/ projects in 36 months here today.
Lauding WCL for resetting its goal from 60 mt to 100 mt of coal production by 2020, the Minister said that enhancing coal production will help in providing electricity to the deprived parts of the country. The Minister congratulated team WCL for acquiring 2500 hectare land and generating 1300 direct employment opportunities to the farmers who have given their land in last one year. Shri Goyal added that the enhanced production will not only fulfill coal demand of Maharashtra but will also provide relief to the southern areas of the country. He hoped that through the pace with which coal mines are opening, the dream of providing 24×7 affordable power for all will become reality.
Shri Anil Swarup, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Shri S. Bhattacharya, CMD Coal India, Dr. A.K. Dubey, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Shri R.R. Mishra, CMD, WCL, former CMDs of WCL and senior officers of Ministry of Coal and WCL were also present on the occasion.
BACKGROUND
Known as one of the best subsidiary of Coal India Limited once upon a time, Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), started registering negative growth after 2009-10 from the level of 45.74 Million Tonnes coal production and the company was registering operational losses since last three years. The company was about to be referred to BIFR and there was no hope seen of further progress. Land acquisition for new projects and negativity among the employees were the major issues. There were no viable plans for opening new projects. No new big project was opened during last ten years. During October – November 2014 the company started thinking on different lines and after extensive exercise taken till now & still under progress the company could identify substantial number of viable projects with the help of Ministry of Coal, Coal India and other authorities.
A Vision document was prepared by WCL with the timelines as a guiding map, which enabled WCL to open new projects with monthly deadlines. The trust building initiatives with villagers enabled WCL to achieve tremendous success in record physical possession of 2650 Ha land during last one year against 2620 Ha land in last ten (10) years was acquired. WCL generated 1300 employments against land during last one year against, 941 in last 10 years and distributed land Compensation of Rs. 525 crore in last one year against total of Rs. 60 crore in last 10 years. Posting excellent performance by opening one project mine every month, it has already opened 10 projects in last 10 months. It has geared up to take a challenge of opening thirty six (36) projects in thirty six (36) months, a sort of world record.
Team WCL is forging ahead by fine tuning its policies and taking all stake holders on board through wide consultation. The tireless efforts, innovative initiatives, speedy approval of Project Reports, improved land acquisition & possession processes enabled WCL to open 10 new projects from January 2015 to October 2015. With this successful experience, the company fixed the timeline for opening of another 26 new and replacement projects. With this, WCL is geared up to build up capacity of 100 MT by 2019-20. Further Team WCL is also aiming to join 100 MT club with proposed allocation of coal property beyond its command area.