The Neyveli Lignite Corporation has overhauled a 28-year-old bucket wheel excavator deployed in Mine-I at a cost of Rs 45.75 crore.
NLC Chairman-cum-Managing Director Sarat Kumar Acharya inaugurated the rejuvenated giant machinery at the specialised mining equipment erection yard on the Mine-I premises here on Tuesday.
German company
A statement from the NLC said that the equipment, supplied by the erstwhile M/S Krupp Germany was first commissioned on December 26, 1988. So far it had logged 1,35,843 working hours in excavation of overburden (layer of soil covering lignite deposit).
The reconditioning of the heavy machinery was done in the Specialised Mining Equipment Yard of the NLC. During the overhaul, major repair, replacements, reconditioning and modifications were carried out. The new wheel has 14 buckets and is equipped with 5,000 litre capacity water tanks for fire fighting systems.
The rejigged machinery was rededicated by NLC Chairman-cum-Managing Director Sarat Kumar Acharya in the presence of NLC Directors Rakesh Kumar, Subir Das, V. Thangapandian and P. Selvakumar.
