17.07.2018
Singrauli
PUSHING THE FRONTIER, BREAKING BOUNDARIES- THE AMLOHRI SAGA
It was 7th July 2018- 6:45 a.m.
I started for my destination of the day.
On less than an hour route, I was thinking about human spirit.
The spirit of pushing the frontiers– the spirit of breaking boundaries–Amlohri OCP had extracted coal worth Rs 370 crores locked in inter-mine boundary. And I was on my route to ground zero.
The saga was waiting to unfold.
ALL-THINGS-MINING
I reached my destination before slotted time. Sitting in waiting area, my glance fixated on neatly arranged sets of landlines and cordless and transceivers. I watched and watched.
Seeing everything as if I am seeing it for the first time, listening to everything as if it is the first time—a typical trait was at play. The trait- now a habit- helps explore varied perspectives over and over.
Gazing at transceivers, I started thinking of magnanimity of mining operations. With such mega scale, communication too has to have mega coverage. This is where these transceivers do their bit as handheld components. Facilitating mine-wide communications, these support VHF (Very High Frequency) wireless communication and also act as connecting link between the quarry and ground overhead.
THE DAILY TARGETS
With gaze still fixed at transceivers, my mind wandered from mine communications to telecommunications. (If interested, the official version written by official-me on Telecommunications in NCL is here and here. )
While I sat ruminating exactly the way cows do, I heard a voice zooming in from the corridor, “Aaj ka target batao.” (What is the target of the day?) That was Mr. Satendra Kumar Gomasta’s voice- General Manager Amlohri.
The Chief had arrived.
I collected– The first thing he does after entering office– Ensure whether his aides know the coal production target of the day. I was also informed office is likely to have a display right at the entrance very shortly. The display would stream daily targets and other deliverables.
What a wonderful way to cascade communication!
That, my friends, is Office of the General Manager Amlohri.No wonder why Amlohri boasts of its journey from 4MT to 14 MT in such short span of time. Even to the uninitiated eyes, the signs had begun to show.
WIN THE COAL- Miner’s Lingo
I was guided to GM Sir’s chamber. He appreciated me by saying, “Thank you for being on time, Purvi.” Just seven words. And positive reinforcement— check 
As the conversation diversified, my best learning of the day came when GM Sir used phrase, ‘Win coal’ while explaining coal blocks. He explained ‘Winning the coal’ means excavating coal from a particular property. Miner’s lingo. Wow! I repeated in my head- Win coal.
OITDS-
Placed at right side of GM Sir was a computer screen on which some movement was visible from the place I was sitting. It was Visual Display Unit (VDU) for Operator Independent Truck Despatch System (OITDS)– a GPS-based system that tracks movement of Haul Trucks and directs them to move on optimized route. This increases machine productivity and overall efficiency of operations. Covering an area of more than 20 sq km, the feeds are interplay of combination of two devices. The first one is mounted on dumpers and second is strategically located communication masts installed in mine. NCL is one of the first subsidiaries of Coal India Limited to use OITDS in its mines. Our website has a detailed account of OITDS. (Here is the link)
BOX CRICKET-
While I was absorbed watching movement of haul trucks on screen, a veteran executive Mr. S.K.Verma [Staff Officer (E&M] entered GM Sir’s chamber. Sir asked, “Kal khelney nahi aaye?”
What followed was an awesome sporty discussion between the two. Picking from that conversation, I easily sensed Team Amlohri has not just championed the Box Cut but is also triumphing Box Cricket with equal vigour. They organise Box Cricket in evening and take turns to participate in sports– a wonderful initiative to promote team spirit and off-the work interaction.
AMLOHRI- What is seen today, was crafted yesterday!
As GM Sir was about to leave for fields, I was redirected to Ramesh Sindhur Sir, Area Planning Manager and Himanshu Sir, Management Trainee (Mining) for guidance. I asked them about barrier mining- the story I was there to cover. While I chatted with them, I was amazed at the level of their preparedness. They had comprehensive PowerPoint presentations for every unique feature of Amlohri. Sindhur Sir, the passionate mine planner, helped me understand some of the mining fundamentals in way which left me spellbound. Himanshu Sir, with brilliant visual presentation, substantiated the learning.
Amlohri is league of its own. The mine marvels abound. The success stories galore. Stories about redemption of mine from critically unsafe to one of the strong contender of upcoming annual mines safety award, the story of central road, boundary coal extraction, Raja Dumper, Litti Chokha Park, the story of numbers showing Amlohri mine roads are safer than city roads! And much more.
Here in this article, I write about two of these mine marvels of Amlohri- The Central Road & Boundary coal extraction.
CENTRAL ROAD- THE ROAD TO GLORY
As learnt from Sindhur Sir, Amlohri is not an overnight wonder. He talked at length about contribution of present GM Sir Mr S.K.Gomasta and all those who led Amlohri in past. Amongst them, period when Chanchal Goswami Sir was GM Amlohri was the one in which Amlohri revived its west section. Likewise, during the leadership of S.K.Jha Sir, Amlohri was in spotlight for continued excellence. In between this, there was yet another period- The regime of P.K.Sinha Sir, our present CMD, as the then-GM Amlohri. The regime was credited for development of Central Road.
It was 2013-14, demand for coal was ticking up exponentially. Given the then mine conditions, one natural way to step up production was a spree of handling (of loose material and not solids). Concerned with this picture, Sindhur Sir shared it with the then GM Amlohri Shri Prabhat Kumar Sinha Sir, our present CMD.
Sindhur Sir reminisces, “ I shared with Sinha Sir the challenge of handling loose material over solids. Poised, he listened. And said- The very existence of problem suggests that there exists its solution too. Sindhur, I am here to chase and accomplish the target. Show me how it can be done. I will facilitate you. I will provide all conditions conducive for accomplishment. Go. Accomplish.”
“GO. ACCOMPLISH” — It rings in my ear as fresh as it was years ago. The way Sinha Sahab said it- the force, the faith, the conviction- it all ushered Amlohri into a new era of brilliance. ” shares Sindhur Sir.
Sleepless nights. Iterations. Reiterations. And the idea is mooted, “Sir, ek tarika hai. Central Road utartey hain. A. NEW. HAUL. ROAD”.
Plan was finally out. Plan to build a central road- cost-effective and energy-efficient way to win the coal.
With action-oriented plan, things started moving to measured tones of data and metrics. Teams were meeting multiple times in a day. A mix of constants and variables were factored in — space, elevation, incline, terrain, load, rolling resistance just to name a few because counting all the factors would have one run out of breath. Justified. After all, it was a haul road. In mines, machines are not just another lump of metal. In mines, machines move earth. Supporting speed and weight of earthmovers is a humongous task for any structure.
Detailed account of the road and its impact is detailed in video slides-
Next in the sequence came my favourite part- seeing everything up close- the Mine Visit.
BREAKING BOUNDARIES- THE AMLOHRI SAGA
The mine looked stunning. Absolutely neat. No residual benches. Everything in order. Sound of machines powering the mine. Metal tooth ramming onto the earth walls.
Yet, mine had an overpowering sense of peace. Peace of being a provider.
And I see the central road- up close and personal.
From a vantage, Sindhur Sir pointed at a patch of land and said, ” See. GM Sir is standing there. You would see him standing for more than 3 straight hours for beneath lies coal. And he is overseeing the process of exposure. The sooner the exposure takes place, the better. ” (During the course of visit, I was also taken to the patch awaiting exposure. Soon after ascending there, I clicked picture. Seen in this picture is GM Sir- (centre)
Back on course, we went further to a point offering strikingly clear view of de-coaled boundary– the intermine boundary from which coal was extracted.
Look down and you will see Dragline in action. Look farther towards Nigahi dump and you will see HEMM plying on road. It was the same diverted road which helped expose inter-mine boundary coal.
As the name suggests, inter-mine boundary is the boundary between two mines. More often than not, large volumes of coal are locked in boundaries. Among others, the most obvious reasons why mine boundaries are not minable is the prevalence of infrastructure over it like haul road, power lines, pipelines etc. Also, it is the mine boundaries which determine area of statutory compliance.
To extract coal locked in this mine boundary, team Amlohri chalked out a multi faceted plan. The plan included diversion of road from Nigahi dump. But there was one major blockade in going ahead with dismantling of old road and construction of new one.
Passing aside the mine was a road leading to Moher village. The villagers had been using this as their everyday passage to fro village.
“As the road leading to village had to be done away for diversion, we made an alternative new road leading to the village. But surprisingly, villagers did not stop using the old road. Habit, you see. habit.
We sensed their reluctance and approached the problem in phased manner. We took extra care and graded the road well. Few villagers started using the new road. Phase-I successful. Next, we ensured regular sprinkling of water. Road looked super clean. More villagers started commuting through the new road. Phase-II successful. Lastly, we illuminated the new road with LED. Now, entire village population was happily using the new road. The plan was successful. With entire traffic diverted, we could go ahead with our plan of dismantling the old road” shares Sindhur Sir.
As I heard the anecdote, I pondered what team Amlohri did to get the required patch clear was quintessential example of application of choice architecture. In this method, you do not force your decision on people. You engineer conditions conducive for the intended decision and let people be the decision makers themselves.
Finally old road was replaced by new one. Hail to synchronized advance to create dump space and development of upper benches on both sides with proper gradient for haul roads, the new diverted road became fully operational. The new road has helped expose coal lying below the old road.
This helped maximise coal extraction from the given geological block. In year 2016-17, total of 1.5MT of blocked coal was recovered. Similarly, in year 2017-18, 2MT of coal has been recovered. The total value of the blocked coal excavated so far is Rs. 370 crores. Further, recovery of 14.5 MT is proposed.
After successful completion of this pilot project at Amlohri, the same will help in bench-marking inter-mine coal extraction process in other mines of NCL too. (Official version of this story by official-me here)
EN-ROUTE MINE- THE CONCEPT OF WBM & WMM— As I come to end of this story, I find it apt to document another moment of Amlohri visit which had deepest impact on me.
Competence breeds strength. Strength facilitates sharing. En-route mine, I saw an activity zone- repairs of a branched light vehicle road was on. I asked about the process. Sindhur Sir & Himanshu Sir – my mine mentors of the day- could have easily brushed aside my query by saying it’s a technical thing, you won’t understand. Hail to Dunning-Kruger Effect, this is experienced often and as a result many a times people blow concepts out of proportion to make it look complicated. But my mine mentors did not.
Sindhur Sir looked at man at helm of the Bolero we were in and gestured him to steer towards the activity zone. He then explained the process- WBM (Water Bound Macadam) and WMM (Wet Mix Macadam) crept into concept. He explained how it is a universal-road-thing and not just a mine road thing. I was explained of how mine roads are designed to have high water holding and shock reduction capacities. Every detail was shared in most simple ways.
Maybe that runs in veins of Amlohri. Every person I met– right from Gomasta Sir to Ramesh Sindhur Sir to Himanshu Wadhwani Sir— all of them have this classic way of making complicated tasks look so easy.
But the belonging with which they talk about their tasks radiates enormous institutional pride. The pride of being NCL.
We are NCL.
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03.02.2019
Singrauli
6 months down the line, so much has happened.
ICOMS happened— An event which saw enormous scale of impact Amlohri can have. The concept, the conduct, website, texts, designs, compilation– signage across the event and souvenir. (www.icoms2018.com)
Annual Mines Safety Award happened– Amlohri is no more a contender. It, by all measures, is THE WINNER. (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2622239934458990&set=a.223551334327874&type=3&theater)
And…and…
The exposure happened. For this, I will let pictures do all the talking where GM Sir is seen leading from front.
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