WCL to utilise water discharged from mines for irrigation

Western Coalfields has taken up a pilot project to utilise the water discharged from its coal mines for irrigation purposes, a top company official said.
Western Coalfields (WCL) discharges about 10 crore gallons of water from its mines per day and at least three crore gallons can be used for rejuvenating the water bodies for irrigation purpose, WCL Chairman & MD Rajiv Ranjan Mishra told reporters here yesterday.
He said water could be used to irrigate between 2,500 and 3,000 hectare land and the company has taken up a pilot project for the purpose.
"WCL will thus become the only Coal India subsidiary to utilise its discharged water for such purposes," Mishra said.

The company after years of negative growth, had scripted a turnaround story by registering a growth both in production and off-take in coal after a gap of five years, he said.
It has recorded a coal production of 40.15 million tonnes and a growth of 3.6 per cent during 2014-15 against 39.73 million tonnes in the year-ago period. The last growth was recorded in 2009-10.

The trend reversed in 2014-15 due to several measures adopted by the company, Mishra said, adding that the main reason was low capacity which resulted in inviolability of mining operations.
"There were various road blocks to be overcome. And in order to overcome these problems, we decided to amalgamate 42 mines which were identified.

"The land under possession was about 200 hectares and a WCL team reached out to villagers and meetings were held, and about 1,500 hectares of land was acquired. Efforts are on to acquire more land," he added.