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Bharat Coking Coal

Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited with its headquarters in Dhanbad. It was incorporated in January, 1972 to operate coking coal mines (214 Nos) operating in the Jharia & Raniganj Coalfields, taken over by the Govt. of India on 16th Oct,1971.

Currently, the Company operates 78 coal mines which include 41 underground, 16 opencast & 21 mixed mines. The Company also runs 7 coking coal washeries, 3 non-coking coal washeries, one Captive Power Plant (2x10 MW), and 5 bye-product coke plants. The mines are grouped into 13 areas for administrative convenience.

BCCL is the major producer of prime coking coal (raw and washed). Medium coking coal is also produced in its mines in Mohuda and Barakar areas. In addition to production of hard coke, BCCL operates a number of sand gathering plants, a network of aerial ropeways for transport of sand and nine coal washeries, namely, Dugda, Mohuda, Bhojudih, Patherdih, Lodna, Sudamdih, Barora, Moonidih and Madhubhan.

Overall scenario

Bharat Coking Coal Limited is one of the consistently loss-making subsidiary company of Coal India Limited. The losses incurred by the company during 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 were Rs. 507.13 crore, and Rs. 569.85 crore and Rs. 959.43 crore respectively . The company has made a turn around in the current fiscal year and has registered a profit of 1.66 crores during April to December 2005. The paid up capital of the company as on 31.03.2005 is Rs. 2,118.00 crore. The company has accumulated losses of Rs. 7,044.02 crore as on 31.03.2005. The total manpower as on 1.4.05 was 92,268 and as on 1.1.06 was 88,901.

Steps taken

1)A major step forward was to internalize market premium on coal sold to non core sector by introducing internet based e-marketing to establish free, fair and transparent access to coal for all consumers.

2)Taking over the Dhanbad-Patherdih Railway line on fire, dismantling railway line to commence coal production by digging out the fire with hired HEMM was another major initiative in this direction.

3)A revival plan was formulated in February 2004 with an objective to reverse the trend and implement on a fast track, activities required to arrest and reverse trend of fall in coal production on one hand and focus on value addition on the other. 4)Besides the above a few other initiatives have been taken to improve work culture by introducing faster decision making, streamlining back up services such as procurement of materials in time to minimize stock out of production holding and safety items, end to “dead body politics”, introduction of 100% payment to workers through banks etc.

Achievements

1)BCCL’s focus on revamping of departmental capacity combined with efforts to deploy hired HEMM in isolated patches has started yielding results with 9.1% growth in raw coal production during December, 2005 and 12.5% increase in OB removal in April-December, 2005 over the same period last year.

2)Washed Coking coal production is growing by around 25% in 05-06 after declining persistently since 1998-99 to 2003-04.

3)Reversing the trend of persistent losses till 03-04, washeries have earned profit of Rs.207.55 crores during April to Dec 05 as against profit of Rs. 63.81 Crores in the same period in 04-05 and losses earlier to that.

Projects undertaken

A fast track plan to develop the virgin 15th seam at Moonidih for a 2 mtpa coking coal mine by introducing State of the Art high capacity PSLW has been initiated.

For opening up a large opencast mine, steps have been initiated for development of Kalyaneswari Project on fast track to produce 2 mtpa medium coking coal plus 3mtpa non coking coal.

Action has been initiated for amalgamating North & South Tisra to develop a 5 mtpa OC mine.

To handle the augmented raw coking coal production, a detailed plan of action for modernization of coking coal washeries, approved by the Board, has been taken up for implementation.

Decline in production from underground mines is a grey area, which remains a major cause of concern. A plan for amalgamation of small mines into a few large mechanized underground mines is being contemplated and is in planning stage.