Best out of waste: South Eastern Coalfields Ltd transforms scrap into beautiful Sculptures

Under Special Campaign 3.0, Coal India subsidiary, South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) has been actively carrying out cleaning activities, disposing off scrap material and freeing up space. However, going one step further, the PSU has taken the campaign as an opportunity to create best from waste by turning mining scrap material into beautiful sculptures.

The government has announced to conduct Special Campaign 3.0 from the 2nd to the 31st October this year with focus on Swachhata and reducing pendency in Government Offices with a saturation approach. A major component of campaign is to dispose off scrap materials which are no longer useful.

SECL’s Jamuna Kotma Area has undertaken the initiative of “Scrap to Sculpture” under Special Campaign 3.0 activities. The main objective of this project was to convert scrap materials of coal mines into various creative sculptures.

The colliery has established a public park to house and display these sculptures made from scrap at Bankim Vihar, Jamuna Kotma Area in Anuppur district of Madhya Pradesh. Among the scrap-made sculptures installed prominent ones are of a coal mine worker, a lion, a crane bird and a flower.

The sculpture of coal mine worker is made of scrap of tor rods, mild steel cut pieces, bearing halves and rollers of conveyer belts. The weight of this sculpture is approximately 1.7 tonnes.

Weighing around 1.5 tonnes, the lion sculpture is made of scrap of tor rods, mild steel cut pieces, metal strips, bearing halves, bearing bolls and rollers of conveyer belts.

The crane bird and flower sculptures are made of scrap of tor rods, mild steel cut pieces, metal strips, bearing halves and bearing bolls, cut pieces of different sizes of pipes and rollers of conveyer belts and weigh about 2.3 tonnes and 1.2 tonnes each respectively.

This project was conceptualized in the backdrop of the fact that a large quantity of scrap materials of coal mines, which are usually left unutilized for prolonged time and eventually auctioned, can be converted into productive usages for the common good.

These sculptures were designed and manufactured at Regional Workshop, Kotma Colliery and a large number of female employees were also involved in crafting these sculptures.

During the ongoing Special Campaign 3.0, the Coal PSU has already disposed off about 1344 metric tons of scrap which has fetched a revenue of more than Rs. 7 crores. In SECL HQ and all of its operational areas various sites are getting cleaned and beautified. The company has also seen significant reduction in average disposal time of grievances received through CPGRAMS from 23 days for the period (1.10.2021 – 30.09.2022) to 08 days for (01.10.2022 – 30.09.2023).

SECL was also one of the best performing coal PSUs in special campaign 2.0. The company cleaned 45 sites with a total area of more than 13 lakh sq. ft. and disposed off more than 1250 metric tons scrap fetching revenue of about Rs. 5.97 crores. The area cleared and scrap disposed by SECL during the campaign was the highest among all Coal India subsidiaries.