The government on Monday said it is contemplating the merger of CMPDIL with Mineral Exploration Corp Ltd (MECL) and stressed that CMPDIL will continue to be the subsidiary of Coal India.
The statement comes soon after reports emerged that the government is moving ahead with a proposal to merge Coal India arm CMPDIL with MECL and will prepare a Cabinet note on the same.
"CMPDIL (Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Ltd) is a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd that provides exploration and consultancy services primarily to the coal sector. Keeping in view the scope for its business expansion in other minerals, the government has plans for its strengthening, for which it is being considered to merge MECL into CMPDIL," the coal ministry said in a statement.
MECL has domain expertise in non-coal mineral exploration and consultancy. As a result, such merger and creation of one integrated exploration and consultancy organization with the requisite expertise for coal and non-coal sectors would result in growth and value addition.
"At the same time, CMPDIL will continue to be a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd," the statement said.
CMPDIL is the planning and design arm of Coal India.
The mines ministry, in a letter to CMDs of MECL and CMPDIL, sought details such as profitability, turnover, current order books, and current position of manpower of the companies in the preparation of the merger.
In a letter to Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi, All India Association of Coal Executives (AIACE) Principal General Secretary P K Singh Rathor had earlier welcomed the move but expressed concerns about how the merger will take place.
On the proposal to separate CMPDIL from CIL, Rathor had earlier said "there will be a huge problem regarding adjustment of employees and executives because both organisations have different salary structures. So, such proposal coming in mind also deserves to be discarded."
