Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) has entered into a partnership with China-based Coal Mining Machinery Co (ZMJ) to redevelop its Moonidih colliery in Jharkhand. Under the new agreement, ZMJ will assist BCCL in powered support long wall (PSLW) mining for the giant coking coal extraction project in the colliery. According to the chairman of the Coal India Ltd, Partha Bhattacharyya, the Chinese company will apply its latest technology to exact maximum coal.

 

ZMJ will be vested with the responsibility of installation, commissioning, supply, maintenance and spares management of the necessary machinery and equipment, informed BCCL chairman-cum-managing director Tapas Kumar Lahiry. According to BCCL, the Chinese company was chosen as it quoted the lowest rate in a global tender.

 

Under the Rs.3.06 billion contract awarded to ZMJ, the company will engage itself in the extraction work in seam 15 of the colliery that contains nearly 38 million tonnes of steel grade coal with low ash content. As per Bhattacharyya, the project will produce 3.5 million tonnes of coal over the period of five years. The recent partnership with the Chinese company will help BCCL to meet the coal demands of the country as the company is the only source of primary coking coal in the domestic market.