Installation of High Capacity Longwall Equipment with Diesel Vehicles at Adriyala Longwall Project, SCCL

Abstract

The Adriyala longwall project is conceived by Singareni Collieries Company Ltd., (SCCL) in the early years of this millennium. This large underground project is a flag ship project not only for SCCL but also for Indian coal mining ndustry as a whole.

Coal is the prime source of energy in India and will remain for decades to come. The growing energy demand can be met only with increasing coal production. India currently produces about 7.8% of the global production with about 9.4% of global coal reserves. This is anticipated to grow rapidly as the country has shortage of other sources of energy. SCCL has produced about 62Mt in the year 2017-18 amounting to about 9% of the Indian coal production. The underground coal production in SCCL is about 13.4% of the total production and in CIL it is about 5.3% for the year 2017-18. Most of the coal exploited so far is up to the depth of 300m only. With depletion of reserves at the shallow depth, the future coal production has to be met from the greater depths only. The longwall technology is the only suitable technology for achieving bulk production from such conditions. Hence the Adriyala project planned for extraction below 350m depth has attained such high significance.

The Adriyala longwall project is a feather in the cap of SCCL and will be a milestone in Indian coal mining industry. This shall drive the coal companies to relook for bulk and profitable underground mining where the conditions are suitable.

For longwall (LW) machinery and connected equipment transport, diesel driven free steered vehicles were used. The floor of the trunk gallery was concreted for 2.0 km to facilitate transport of such heavy equipment with free steered diesel vehicles.

This paper focuses mainly on requirements of diesel vehicles and transport of equipment with diesel vehicles in trunk roadway having 1 in 4.5 gradient and tail gate with undulated floor, uneven sides, water seepage from the floor and other associated problems.