Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi Visits Opencast & Underground Mines of ECL

GG News Bureau

Durgapur, 25th Nov. Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi stressed on achieving the 50 MT annual coal production target of ECL during 2022-23, and directed to increase the coal production and dispatch to meet the energy requirement of the country.

On the second day of a two-day visit to Eastern Coalfields Limited on Thursday, Pralhad Joshi visited the View Point of Sonepur Bazari opencast Project under Sonepur Bazari Area of ECL.

He was accompanied by M. Nagaraju, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Government of India.

During this time, the Minister inspected the entire project from the View Point, as well as held a review meeting of the project with the officials and gave necessary instructions.

The Minister of Coal also inaugurated a 12.0 MTY, SILO and CHP in Sonepur Bazari area, which will help to increase the coal loading capacity of the company as well as will also help to control environmental pollution caused by coal production and dispatch.

After this, Pralhad Joshi reached the underground coal mine, Jhanjhara Project under Jhanjhara Area, and inspected the Jhanjhara Project underground coal mine, which is about 225 meters deep from the land, its annual coal production capacity is 3.5 MT.

Pralhad Joshi is the first Coal Minister who went inside the Underground Mine of Jhanjhara Project, which is the most coal producing underground mine of India.

The Minister inspected the coal mine and encouraged the coal workers and officials.

Joshi also dedicated the Jhanjhara Expansion Project (5.0MTY), an underground coal mine to the Nation. After this, the Minister of Coal planted saplings in the courtyard of Jhanjhara Project.

Pramod Agarwal, Chairman, Coal India Limited; A.P. Panda, CMD, ECL; J.P. Gupta, Director (Technical), Md. Anzar Alam, Director (Finance); Ahuti Swain Director (Personnel); Mukesh Kumar Mishra, Chief Vigilance Officer, General Managers, Head of Department, officers from ECL Headquarter, General Managers of various Areas of ECL, officers, Union officials were present.