MCL CMD inaugurates 5 Mahatma Gandhi Udyan

Sambalpur: Remembering Mahatma Gandhi on his 151st birth anniversary, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) today inaugurated five orchards, having more than 5,500 fruit-bearing trees, being developed over total land of 10 hectares in the coalfields.

He also inaugurated the commencement of Rs 1.4 crore infrastructure development works under project “Kayakalp” at Basantpur village in Sambalpur district.

BN Shukla, MCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director, inaugurated all these projects through video conferencing from headquarters.

OP Singh, Director (Technical/Operations), KR Vasudevan, Director (Finance), BP Sharma, CVO, Keshav Rao, Director (Personnel) and Baban Singh, Director (Technical/Projects & Planning) were prominent among senior officers attending the ceremony.

Dedicated to ‘Father of the Nation’ as Mahatma Gandhi Udyan, three orchards have been developed at Talcher Area, Bhubaneswari Area and Balaram Area under Talcher Coalfields in Angul district while two have been developed at Basundhara West and Garjanbahal open cast mines in Sundergrah districts under Ib Valley Coalfields of the Company.

Apart from these, a Mahatma Gandhi Udyan at Kechhobahal Compensatory Afforestation Site of Samleswari OCP under Ib Valley coalfields will be inaugurated by the District Forest Officer (DFO), Jharsuguda.  

Most of these plants, like Mango, Guava, Jamun, Amla, Lemon, Bel, Papaya, Litchi and Sapota, were collected from Central Institute of Subtropical Horticulture (ICAR), Lucknow. 

In the current fiscal 2020-21, the company has planted 1,49,000 saplings over an area of 78 hectare in and around its command area. This included plantation of 17,065 plants during Van Mahotsav 2020.

Since inception, MCL has planted 61,41,990 saplings over 2543.01 hectare of land as a part of its green initiatives.

Meanwhile, the CMD also initiated Mahatma Gandhi Smriti “Kayakalp”, a CSR initiative, at Basantpur village, focusing on creating infrastructure facilities.

Under this CSR initiative, company has earmarked Rs 1.4 crore for piped water facility to village households, drainage system, street lighting, renovation of school complex, new community center and pond embankment.   

Earlier in the day, Shukla led a cleanliness drive under “Swachhta hi Sewa” to mark the beginning of Swachhta Mah (month), as a part of two-year-long 150th years of celebrating the Mahatma.