The Neyveli Lignite Corporation has inducted a new bucket-wheel excavator, a heavy duty mining equipment worth Rs. 115.56 crore.
It will be used in Mine-I area for removing the overburden, or top soil over the lignite deposit. At a simple function held at Mine-I here on Friday, NLC Chairman-cum-Managing Director B. Surender Mohan inaugurated the equipment in the presence of NLC Directors M.S. Ravindranath (Mines), S. Boopathy (Planning and Projects) and other executives.
Speaking on the occasion the Chairman said that the new equipment, weighing 1,650 tonnes, had been inducted as a replacement for a 50-year-old equipment in Mine-I. The NLC had proposed to procure two more such equipment soon. It would scoop up to 50,000 cubic feet of soil in an hour. It could cut the soil at the height of 20 metres and also dig deep up to five metres below the truck level. The equipment had a reverse cut facility that would enable the bucket-wheel, having seven scooping devices, to function in both directions so as to work even in slushy condition.
