Hooghly Met Coke & Power Co

Hooghly Met Coke & Power Co light up the 1st Coke Oven
2007-09-18 14:07:11 Source : Moneycontrol.com
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Hooghly Met Coke & Power Co Ltd, a Joint Venture between Tata Steel Ltd and WBIDC, installed its first module of coke ovens which was lighted up today by Dr T Mukherjee, Deputy Managing Director (Steel) Tata Steel Ltd and Chairman, Hooghly Met Coke & Power Co Ltd, along with Mr Lakshman Seth, Honorable Member of Parliament and Chairman, Haldia Development Authority in the presence of other dignitaries. The Company is in its advanced stage of implementing its green field project of setting up a stand-alone Coke Ovens Complex along with Power Plant at Haldia, West Bengal. It is designed to manufacture 1.6 mtpa of high quality, low ash, metallurgical coke along with 120 MW of power generated from the waste heat produced in the process. The project with an investment of over Rs.1800 crores was envisaged as an integrated project, comprising of coke ovens and power plant. However, for reasons of expertise in the area of power generation and excellent track record of over 100 years, the power plant was handed over to Tata Power Co Ltd on 8 th November 2006. On the occasion of lighting up of the first module of the Coke Oven, Dr. T Mukherjee congratulated everybody on the achievement and said, "This is a moment of satisfaction for us that the lighting up of the Coke Oven has taken place in such a short span of time. This commendable job has been possible only through the hard work of the workers of Hooghly Met Coke and the support of Mr. Lakshman Seth and Mr. Rajiv Dubey. " While addressing the gathering, Mr. Lakshman Seth said, "I am really happy by the fast progress made by Met Coke in setting up its first module of Coke Ovens and would like to congratulate everybody who has been involved with it. " The ground-breaking ceremony for this project was performed by Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal on 18th February 2006. From then on, the project has been on the fast track, wherein the Company the Brick Laying ceremony was performed by Shri Nirupam Sen, Minister In-charge, Commerce & Industries, Government of West Bengal, on 31 st October 2006. On commissioning of the full capacity of 1.6 mtpa, HMC will be the largest stand-alone Coke Plant in India and one amongst the largest in the world. Besides generating additional revenue for Haldia Dock Complex through import of coal, its principal raw material, HMC will source most of its skilled and semi-skilled workforce locally to meet the aspirations of the people of Haldia, in particular and West Bengal, in general. The technology adopted by HMC i.e. Heat Recovery Coke Ovens, is relatively new to the country and is designed to meet the stringent environmental norms. Low ash metallurgical coke produced at Haldia, will be fully dedicated to Tata Steel Ltd for their Jamshedpur Works and the power produced, will be exported to the State Grid. HMC has created a record of sorts in completing the project in little over a year and a half since the ground breaking stage. Other modules will get commissioned progressively by the middle of 2008, thereby attaining the rated capacity of 1.6 mtpa of coke.