New Delhi: Union Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi has said that together with introduction of latest IT enabled technologies, an overall approach towards implementing the same in a sustained and efficient manner is the key to further enhancing coal production and supply.

Inaugurating the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementation of Coal India Ltd (CIL) at a function here on February 23, Joshi recalled the effective use of IT tools by the Centre for the launch of Jan Dhan Account under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He pointed out that technology can ensure transparency and bring down corruption. He said that 42 coal blocks have been successfully auctioned so far by the Ministry of Coal under commercial auctioning of coal mines, while complimenting CIL for successfully overcoming the recent challenges by ensuring sustained coal supply to the nation.

Joshi emphasized on the unique advantages of the ERP system launched. He said that the primary objective of the project is to position CIL as a global player in the energy sector. The Minister added the ERP will establish best business practices, standardize and unify business processes across CIL and its subsidiaries. Implementation of ERP across Coal India will give a boost to the government endeavor towards Digital and New India, he said.

ERP is a great tool of information technology intervention, which will help CIL improve its business performance and growth with enhanced data integrity and cost effectiveness. This will in turn help the national miner evolve as a global player. SAP ERP at CIL comprises seven modules, namely, Human Capital Management (HCM), Sales and Distribution (SD), Production and Planning (PP), Plant Maintenance (PM), Project System (PS), Material Management (MM) and Finance & Control (FICO).

ERP in Coal India has been implemented in two phases. In the first phase, it was implemented at CIL Headquarters and two subsidiaries WCL and MCL, the Phase II implementation was in the remaining six Subsidiaries SECL, NCL, CCL, ECL, BCCL and CMPDI. Tech Mahindra was the implementation partner for Phase I whereas Accenture is the implementation partner for Phase II. Dr Anil Kumar Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Pramod Agarwal, Chairman, Coal India Ltd, and other senior functionaries of the Ministry and CIL attended the function of ERP implementation pan Coal India. /BI/