S.K. Acharya, chairman and managing director, NLCIL, has commissioned the re-routed conveyor system in Mine-I, which is expected to bring down the production cost of lignite.
It will help the company to save about ₹17 crore a year, which includes ₹4.68 crore savings on power, a press note from NLCIL said.
Mine-I Lignite Bench system is operated with 2,000 mm belt conveyor to transport the lignite from the site of excavation to the stack yard.
The production conveyors are connected to the stacking conveyors through five link conveyors of length of 2,719 m.
There are 10 drives (630 KW capacity) in these link conveyors. To reduce the cost of production of lignite, the production conveyor is directly connected with the stacking conveyors through one single conveyor having four drives.
This re-routed system was commissioned recently by Mr. Acharya.
Length reduced
By this re-routing, the link conveyor length was reduced from 2,719 m to 1,206 m. Due to this reduction, four 2,000 mm drive heads, four 630 KW drive motors, 2,000 mm steel cord belt for a length of 3,000 m and idlers for the same length were made available for use in other areas.