Pralhad Joshi visits opencast and underground mines of ECL

Sonepur Bazari (West Bengal) : The Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Shri 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 two-day visit to Eastern Coalfields Limited today, Shri Pralhad Joshi visited the View Point of Sonepur Bazari opencast Project under Sonepur Bazari Area of ECL. He was accompanied by Shri 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, Shri 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.

Shri 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.

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

Shri Pramod Agarwal, Chairman, Coal India Limited, Shri A.P. Panda, CMD, ECL, Shri J.P. Gupta, Director (Technical), Md. Anzar Alam, Director (Finance), Smt. Ahuti Swain Director (Personnel), Shri 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.