Essel Mining bags outsourcing contract of MCL mine

The operations of Bhubaneswari open cast mine under the command area of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd (CIL), has been outsourced to Essel Mining, an Aditya Birla group firm.

It is for this first time in the history of CIL that operations of a coal mine has been fully outsourced to a private firm even though the ownership remains with MCL. The Bhubaneswari open cast mine has a capacity of 20 million tonnes per annum.

According to a government decision, three coal mines in MCL have been offered for outsourcing- Bhubaneswari and Kaniha, both in Talcher coalfields and Kulda mines under Basundhara coalfield in Sundergarh district.

While full outsourcing activities have begun in Bhubaneswari, other two mines are still to adopt the same though contracts have been awarded, according to an MCL official.

Essel Mining, which has been awarded the contract for 15 years for the Bhubaneswari mines, performed the ground breaking ceremony at a site near Jilinda village in the presence of MCL chairman and managing director (CMD) A N Sahay.

However, the ground breaking ceremony was disrupted by affected villagers who held demonstrations at the site. Later, they were pacified after the MCL CMD assured to look into their demands relating to rehabilitation.

All works related to the Bhubaneswari mines including production, removal of over burden and street lighting will be done by Essel Mining. The private company has been given a target to produce eight million tonnes in the first year.