In Kolkata: Wipro and Leica Geosystems have bagged a Rs 120 crore project to set up operator-independent truck dispatch systems (OITDS) at Coal Indias (CIL) 11 large mines.
The project will save idle time for both trucks and equipment operating at these mines leading to substantial savings. CIL hopes to recover the cost within two years.
CIL had carried out an internal study a few years ago which revealed that losses could be as high as Rs 50,000 if a 170-tonne truck remained idle for half an hour. The figure would double if the truck had a larger capacity, say 240 tonnes.
OITDS aims at cutting down the idle time at mines to maximise uptime of all vehicles and equipment at mines, a CIL official said.
Trucks will be installed with a mobile data transmitter (MDT) which will send crucial data and the co-ordinates to four satellites hovering over the mine at that time.
Shovels and other excavation equipment will also be installed with these transmitters. These satellites will, in turn, beam the data on a real-time basis to a control room located at each mine.
Theoretically, trucks and equipment are expected to operate 24 hours a day. This level is down to nine hours at CIL mines including breakdowns and idle time due to absence of such systems.
We will be able to cut downtime and increase functioning of vehicles and equipment by at least two to three more hours. Three hours of additional functioning will lead to higher production.
Savings will increase by Rs six lakh and Rs eight lakh per truck good enough for CIL to recover the investment in two years, a senior official of CIL involved in designing the system said.
In the first phase, 11 mines under various CIL subsidiaries will be included in the project. While Wipro will be responsible for installing the system at four mines under SECL and ECL, Leica will install the system at seven mines.
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