Nagpur | March 02, 2015: Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), inaugurated an open cast mine project at Bhanegaon village about 25 kms from the city. A virgin block, this is the second new project started by this PSU in the current fiscal. In November the company had started the Makardhokda mine located near Umred. The Bhanegaon and Makardhokda projects have a total capacity of 1 million and 0.8 million tons a year respectively.
Talking to newspersons at sidelines of the inaugural ceremony, WCL's chairman-cum-managing director (CMD), RR Mishra said the company needed to beef up its production in order to maintain viability. Mines with a total capacity of almost 20 million tons a year would be closing down in the coming three years. In a bid to fill up the gap fast, there were plans to start one new mine a month during the next fiscal, he said. This would increase the total capacity to 20 million tons yearly at the peak level. But at the same time WCL would also be closing down mines with a capacity of around 5 million tons during the next fiscal, Mishra added.
Currently WCL's production is at 40 million tons a year, and there are plans to take it to 60 million tons by 2020, for which new mines will be opened in the next five years. Even as the new mines to be opened during coming fiscal will have a total capacity of 20 million tons a year, it shall take some time to reach the peak level. In the meantime, old mines will be closed down too. "So ultimately even as more projects will be opened in the coming 4 to 5 years, the net production is expected to remain 60 million tons by 2020," said Mishra.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)