Coal India Tries Out ‘Made in India’ Electric Dumper

In an effort to support Make in India, Coal India, for the first time, has started using an indigenously-made, 205-tonne electric dumper, a critical piece of equipment in mining. The dumper has been developed by state-owned BEML and is expected to increase competition among suppliers, bring down costs and improve availability of spares. The electric dump truck is on trial at one of the largest Coal India subsidiaries, Northern Coalfields’ Amlohri coal mine, where all low-capacity dumpers are being replaced by larger ones. This e-dumper is the biggest deployed at NCL.

“If the dumper can successfully complete its trial run of six months, BEML will be able to participate in tenders for higher capacity dumpers floated by Coal India. One such tender has been recently floated, which involves procuring 96 high capacity dumpers for NCL at a maximum cost of `1,500 crore. Another set of 10 dumpers is being procured for Eastern Coalfields,” said a senior executive from Northern Coalfields. NCL chairman and managing director PK Sinha said, “The use of latest and modern technology in various works related to coal production and dispatch has always been the basis of NCL’s success stories. Deployment of this indigenously-developed electric dumper will strengthen NCL’s preparedness to further new targets.”

At present, equipment supply to Coal India is dominated by a Russia’s Belaz, Tata Hitachi and Caterpillar and each of these high-capacity dumpers come at prices upwards of Rs 15 crore. “The BEML dumper is expected to perform exceptionally well on haul roads with low maintenance and is equipped with hydraulic brakes, a modern dashboard, ergonomically-designed seat and emergency steering,” said Sinha. According to an NCL executive, requirement for dumpers and shovels are expected to rise in the near future and the plan is to phase out 10 cubic meter shovels with 20 cubic meter ones that would require higher capacity dumpers to carry the load.

Source:ET

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