New Delhi: Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi said that Indian economy is marching ahead despite odds and difficulties caused by Covid-19 pandemic. Addressing the function to confer coal minister’s awards for 2021-22 here today, Joshi pointed out that coal sector has played a crucial role in ensuring energy security of India.
Joshi urged CIL and its subsidiaries to focus on infrastructure development, transportation and new technologies to increase coal production. Secretary Coal Dr. Anil Kumar Jain, Chairman, Coal India Ltd Pramod Agarwal and other senior functionaries of the ministry and coal India subsidiaries attended the function.
Started last year, the purpose of the Awards was to not only appreciate and acknowledge the best performers among CIL’s coal producing companies, but also to create a congenial and competitive spirit to outperform each other.
The first ever awards of last year were in three categories of safety; production & productivity; sustainability. Expanding the ambit, this year two new additional categories of quality and ERP implementation have been added. In another upshot, General Managers of best performing areas are also acknowledged and awarded this year in four subcategories.
Of the awards in five categories, Mahanadi Coal Fields Ltd (MCL) bagged the first prize in three categories namely safety, production & productivity and quality. While the first prize in sustainability category went to Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) bagged first prize in implementation of ERP.
Continuing the high orbit performance this year as well, CIL’s production of 224 million ton (MT) so far (till 11th Aug, 2022) achieved a strong growth of 24% – the like of which was never witnessed before. Total off-take of 251 MTs with 10.4% growth is another point in the company’s performance
Also, at a time when the country is vigorously reviving its post pandemic economic growth, Coal India’s capital expenditure reached an all time high of 15,400 crores in FY’22, overtaking the target for the second consecutive year.
