New Delhi: The Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL) is being merged with the Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited (MECL). The Ministry of Coal has said that CMPDIL is a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) 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.

MECL has domain expertise in non-coal mineral exploration and consultancy. Therefore, such merger and creation of one integrated exploration and consultancy organization with requisite expertise for coal and non-coal sector would result in growth and value addition. At the same time, CMPDIL will continue to be a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, said the Coal Ministry in a statement. /BI/