Union Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar​ lays out plan to boost MCL output

21 Aug 2017

The Ministry is planning to produce enough coal to fuel all the industries and contribute to nation building, said Union Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar while winding up his three-day visit to Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) on Monday. Addressing the media, Kumar expressed satisfaction with the performance of MCL and said a target has been set to produce 100 million tonnes of coal annually only from Ib Valley area of MCL by 2020-21 and 150 million tonnes by 2023-24.

Informing about dispatch of coal, he said while the laying of railway track from Jharsuguda to Sardega in Sundargarh will be completed by December 2017, doubling of the line would be wrapped up by 2019-20. Similarly, plans are afoot to connect Sardega with Palma in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh with rail link.

He said there are issues of R&R which have been affecting production of coal. Odisha Chief Minister and Chief Secretary have been apprised about these issues, Kumar said and added that the support and co-operation extended in areas like Talcher is not enough. A little help from the State Government to resolve R&R issues will definitely boost production, he said.

Replying to a query on plan of Niti Aayog to split Coal India (CI) and give each subsidiary autonomous power to facilitate competition, Kumar said the plan has been rejected by the Ministry of Coal. Responding to a question on the observation of Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) who found CMDs of all four subsidiaries ‘’unsuitable’’ for the post of Chairman of CI, the Coal Secretary said suitability and competence are two different issues and he was satisfied with the performance of all the four CMD S.Kumar further said the idea to use stabilised Over Burden (OB) Dump to install solar panels and generate solar power is also being explored. He denied any plans of MCL to go into mining of quartz for commercial use which is found abundantly in Odisha.

Source-IE