Union Coal Secretary Anil Swarup, who is on a three-day Odisha tour, laid the foundation-stone of a 10-million-tonne-per-year-capacity coal washery of the Mahanadi Coalfields limited (MCl) in Jharsuguda on Saturday.
Swarup arrived at Jharsuguda for coalfields visit on the second day of his tour to the State along with MCl Chairman-cum-Managing Director Anil Kumar Jha, Director (Tech/Operations), AK Tiwari, Director (Tech/P&P) JP Singh, Director (Personnel) PC Panigrahi and Director (Finance) KK Parida.
The Secretary laid the foundation stone of the Ib Valley Washery in the lakhanpur Area of the MCl, which is estimated to be built at a cost of Rs 396 crore by October 2017. The washery would benefit the company, the common men and the country as a whole, Swarup said.
The washery is one of the four 10-MTPY ones, two each in the Ib Valley Coalfields and Talcher Coalfields, being set up by the MCl, which are expected come up in the financial year 2017-18. Swarup also visited various opencast coalmines of the MCl. He was briefed on the ongoing mining operation by the MCl CMD and Directors.
The Secretary also planted saplings on the reclaimed sites of coalmines. The MCl, the leading coal producing company of the country, aims to contribute 250 million tonnes of coal to the one-billion tonne coal production target of the Maharatna Coal India limited by financial year 2020.
