The Union Minister Nitin Gadkari reportedly conveyed that the Coal India arm Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) has set an ambitious target of 100 million tonnes (MT) production by 2026-27 and plans to set up 20 more mines in the next four years. Inaugurating three mines of WCL through video conferencing, the road transport, highways and MSME minister also asked the company to employ more ‘sons of the soil’ in its projects. (WCL) will have Rs 5,300 crore capital investment. He also asked WCL to provide sand at lower cost to the poor for construction of houses. He said the company is already providing sand to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and other government entities at lower prices. WCL is providing it to NHAI, PM Awas Yojana and government entities on lesser prices and it should provide it to poor people also for construction of houses, as per reports. A proper planning in this regard could take WCL’s income from sand to Rs 1,000 crore.
WCL had achieved an output of 57.46 MT in FY20 against a target of 56 MT. The three coal mines of WCL inaugurated include two in Madhya Pradesh and one in Maharashtra. The Adasa underground to opencast mine in Nagpur, Maharashtra, has capacity of 1.5 MT, while Sharda and Dhankasa underground mines in Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, have 0.4 MT and 1 MT capacity, respectively. These mines will entail a total capital expenditure of Rs 849 crore with provision of direct employment to 647 persons.