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Coal India set to spend Rs 5,500 cr on explosives

To procure explosives for mines, Coal India Ltd will spend around Rs 5,500 crore by 2014-15.

A.K. Debnath, Chairman and Managing Director of Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd (CMPDIL), announced this while inaugurating a two-day conference on ‘Explosives and blasting techniques for mining, quarrying and infrastructure industry’ here last week. CMPDIL is a subsidiary of Coal India.

Debnath said the consumption of industrial explosives by Coal India has reached around Rs 1,700 crore a year. Considering the demand for coal in the coming years, the company will spend approximately Rs 5,500 crore from 2012-13 to 2014-15 for procuring explosives, he said.

Stressing the need for improvement in blast performance, Debnath said an improvement of 1 per cent would help save around Rs 17 crore a year to Coal India.

Stating that Coal India has good technology related to blasting and mining, he hoped that it should help improve production in future.

V.R. Sastry, Conference Chairman, said that blasting activity is attracting a great deal of attention from industry and society. There are many gaps between development and the application of technology in the area of explosives and blasting.

Those working in this area should adopt the latest and sophisticated designs and techniques to enhance the safety and economy of blasting operations, he said.

Gopal Mogeraya, Director in Charge, National Institute of Technology-Karnataka, presided over the inaugural event.
(This article was published on September 29, 2013)

Source: The Hindu Business Line