Union Minister of Coal and Mines Shri Pralhad Joshi visited the Jhanjra underground mine of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), a subsidiary of Coal India, on November 24, 2022.
ECL, the country’s highest-producing underground mine, has an annual production capacity of 3.5 million metric tons and will produce 45 million metric tons of coal in 2021–22.
Joshi inaugurated the Jhanjhara expansion project, raising its capacity to 5 million metric tons. He directed the officers of ECL to work towards achieving a production target of 50 million metric tons during the current fiscal year to meet the country’s energy requirements.
On the second day of his visit, Joshi inaugurated several infrastructure projects to increase coal loading capacity and control pollution caused by coal production and dispatch. He also visited the Sonepur Bazari opencast project, which has a capacity of producing 12 MTPA of coal.
Joshi directed concerned officials to increase production from 35,000 metric tons to 45,000 metric tons per day. In FY22, ESL’s coal production stood at 32.428 million metric tons, with 8.996 MT from underground mines and 23.432 MT from opencast mines.
ESL operates in West Bengal and Jharkhand with 14 operating areas and 80 working mines, with a coal reserve of 54.365 billion tons in its command areas.
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