Kolkata: In a first the '43rd Foundation Day' of Coal India Limited (CIL) held on Wednesday was telecast live on the company's Facebook Page facilitating the employees of CIL spread across eight states of the country to watch the event live. The webcast was seen by workers and employees of almost all projects of CIL.
The morning session was chaired by Susheel Kumar, Secretary, Coal. PK Sengpta, ex- Chairman, CIL was the guest of honour. Outstanding performers of the company were awarded.
In another first, Best General Managers of areas and Best Project Officers for outstanding performance in coal production and coal off-take during the April-September 2017 period were awarded.
A total of 67 Awards have been presented during this year's event.
Speaking on the occasion, Susheel Kumar said that the Ministry of Coal has fixed 4 priorities for CIL - quality, safety, environmental management and clean coal technologies.
He spoke about supply of quality coal to the consumers. The slippage between promised quality and delivered quality has to go. He said safety of miners is non-negotiable and environmental norms have to be followed diligently.
He also said that CIL has to do everything possible to reduce specific coal consumption – that is the amount of coal burned to produce one unit of power – so that there is less burning of coal and less carbon emission.
Kumar said Coal India should generate greater profits by better efficiency and larger volumes. Construction of washeries are to be accorded a high priority. Clean coal technologies like Coal to Liquid, Coal to Polychemicals / methanol etc are to be adopted in a big way.
The inaugural session was attended by doyens of coal mining industry-retired CMDs of CIL / subsidiaries and FDs.
An interactive session, conducted for the first time, was presided over by Susheel Kumar, Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Coal and Gopal Singh, Chairman CIL coordinated the session.
CMDs of coal companies and past Chairmen of the company discussed issues relating to ramping up the coal production, supplies, technology upgradation, safety, coal conservation, diversification and environmental sustainability.
Gopal Singh, Chairman, CIL exhorted employees past and present to email their suggestion for improvement of the company to his e mail address, so that a concrete plan could be finalized and worked upon.