In 2017, India’s largest electricity producer, NTPC Ltd, began production of coal from the Pakri Barwadih mine in Jharkhand. The 15 Mt/y coal mine is operated by Thriveni Sainik, a JV between leading Indian mining contractor, Thriveni Earthmovers and Sainik Mining & Allied Services Ltd, with the joint venture having been awarded a 25 year Mine Developer cum Operator (MDO) contract in September 2015. To reduce diesel costs and emissions, the JV is currently in the early stages of a feasibilty study on potentially installing 2 km of trolley assist lines at the mine – 1 km on the pit ramp and another 1 km on the waste dump ramp.

The project, which would be a first for India, would see conversion of the existing overburden trucks, which include 220 t Komatsu 830Es with Wabtec (GE) AC drives and 254 t Hitachi EH4500s with Siemens AC drive models, which are loaded by Liebherr R 996 hydraulic excavators. The partner for the project has not yet been decided though it will be one of Siemens, Wabtec or ABB given their experience with existing trolley trucks and projects. Thriveni Sainik is not new to applying innovations at the mine having already deployed an IoT based control room, along with elements of in-pit crushing and conveying, and new predictive maintenance practices.

The operation is India’s largest coal mining MDO contract, helping NTPC to meet its fuel requirements of 50,000 MW per year. Pakri Barwadih is also one of the biggest captive coal blocks allotted to NTPC with an extractable reserve of around 642 Mt. The peak production from the block is 15 Mt/y with the mine located in the North Karanpura Coalfields, in the Hazaribag district of Jharkhand.