The new Service Centre with state-of-the-art facilities would fulfill a long-felt need for a repair facility in the coal-belt area of Singrauli.

L&T Construction & Mining Machinery has set up a new Service Centre in Singrauli, the heartland of India's coal industry. The new facility was inaugurated by Arvind K Garg, Executive Vice-President & Head, Construction & Mining Machinery Business, Larsen & Toubro in the presence of a galaxy of top customers from public sector and private companies. Gunadhar Pandey, Director(Technical), Northern Coalfields; PSRK Sastry, Director (Finance), Northern Coalfields; Russell Conley, Chief Project Director - Sasan, Reliance Power; Masaaki Kamizono, Managing Director, Komatsu India; Jimmy Renstrom, Chief Financial Officer, Scania Commercial Vehicles India and V Prabhakar Reddy, Member of Parliament, participated in the event.

Addressing the gathering, Garg said the new Service Centre with state-of-the-art facilities would fulfill a long-felt need for a repair facility in the coal-belt area. He said L&T was committed to providing lifecycle support to the mining equipment deployed in Singrauli area and this move was to reinforce that commitment. 'L&T is prepared to deliver top class field support at customer doorsteps and ensure availability of the high-cost machines at all times,' he added.

L&T Service Centre is located at Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam industrial area at Waidhan, Madhya Pradesh, about 30 km from Singrauli and 210 km from Varanasi. It incorporates advanced facilities to take up, overhaul and repairs of over 1,000 units strong fleet of L&T/Komatsu/Scania equipment engaged in overburden removal and in mining projects in this area. The fleet includes off-highway dump trucks, crawler dozers, hydraulic excavators, wheel loaders, motor graders and tipper trucks. Engines, transmissions, axles, hydraulic assemblies and other aggregates fitted on to these construction and mining equipment shall also be taken up for overhaul in the Service Centre.

This Service Centre is spread over a total area of 10,080 sq m. The workshop is well laid out, with epoxy flooring and is equipped with overhead cranes, dust-free cooling system, special fixtures and tools for carrying out repairs of major machines and components. The facility is environment-friendly with an ergonomically designed workshop, rain water harvesting, sewage and effluent treatment plant and fire-protection system.

With an increasing machine population in the coal-belt area of Singrauli, L&T felt it prudent to open Service Centre to take up overhaul and repairs of mining equipment as well as aggregates. The location of the Service Centre in proximity to the mining belt would reduce the lead time for repairability and help in stepping up the equipment availability which is so crucial in the production cycle of the mines.  Northern Coalfields, Reliance Power Ltd, VPR Infrastructure Ltd and BGR Mining Co are some of the major customers in the area.

The setting up of this Service Centre in Singrauli augurs well with the consolidation of mining activities in North India and the increased mining activity through deployment of large-sized shovels and dumpers.