Northern Coalfields Ltd: surging ahead with time

摘要

Northern Coalfields Ltd. holds the distinction of being the most cost-effective, technology driven subsidiary company of Coal India Ltd., the largest corporate employer in the world. Its command area "Singrauli coalfield" is the largest single coalfield in India that consists of hills, rocks, caves and forests located mostly in Sidhi and Shahdol districts of Madhya Pradesh and partly in Sonebhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. It is about 220 km south of Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and at about the same distance east of Rewa (Madhya Pradesh), the habitat of white tigers. The region, where primitive mining was reported as early as 1850s, remained largely unexploited in organised manner for over a century because of lack of infrastructure. With the initiative of erstwhile NCDC in early 1970s, a master plan for the development of the coalfield was conceived with the assistance of Russian experts based on mega-sized surface mines. The Indo-Soviet Agreement in November 1973 gave birth to a feasibility report in August 1974, forming the basis for the development of each mining block in Singrauli coalfield, which followed signing of protocol on 27th December 1975. The master plan, prepared by CMPDIL in collaboration with the Russian experts was drawn dividing the coalfield into eleven mining blocks viz. Kakri, Bina, Marak, Khadia, Dudhichua, Jayant, Nigahi, Amlohri, Moher, Gorbi and Jhingurdah. The Singrauli coalfield was carved out of Central Coalfields Ltd. in November 1985 and was registered as a separate company known as Northern Coalfields Ltd.