Maharashtra appoints MSMC as nominated agency for coal distribution

Kolkata, May 11: To make more coal available for the small, medium and other sectors, the Maharashtra Government has appointed Maharashtra State Mining Corporation (MSMC) as the state nominated agency (SNA) for coal distribution to MSMEs of the state.
Today Maharashtra is the most successful state in terms of volumes of coal booked and allocated to MSMEs. Out of the total coal offered by Coal India to Maharashtra, 93 per cent have been booked by MSMEs through the online platform. MSMC has been able to distribute 1.94 lakh tonnes of coal through this platform, with a transaction value of around Rs 4800 lakhs in its first year of operation, a release issued here today said.
The erstwhile offline process of coal distribution in Maharashtra was unable to address the needs of the MSMEs and did not meet the desired objectives. The major pain point was lack of transparency as the consumers did not have fair and equal opportunity to buy their desired coal at the right prices.
The Maharashtra government wanted the entire distribution process to be transparent and so MSMC decided that in order to meet the objectives and address the above challenges, an innovative IT enabled business process is required where the offline practices could be replaced by system based automated solutions.
MSMC decided to entrust the responsibility of digitizing coal distribution in the state to mjunctionservices limited, a joint venture between Steel Authority of India and TATA Steel. mjunction, using their strong domain knowledge on the coal industry and on IT enabled solutions, conceptualized automation of the entire coal distribution process. It developed and implemented a fully-automated and a comprehensive coal e-distribution platform for MSMC in 2017.
Mr. Vinaya Varma, CEO of mjunction, said, “The web-enabled e-distribution platform makes coal available online in a fair manner. The digitization of the coal distribution process will go a long way in empowering the MSMEs in realizing their full potential. MSMEs can then provide the much needed impetus in the country’s economic growth and GDP figures.”
MSMEs across Maharashtra are now able to book their coal requirements online and to get access to the status of their transactions on a real time basis through the e-distribution system. Consumers are now able to place their requirement of preferred coal online and the system ensures that coal is allocated to the consumers based on a pre-defined algorithm, resulting in fair and equal opportunities to all, the release said.
MSMC MD, Dr. Nirupama Dange said, “The digitization of coal distribution has ushered in a new age of transparency and accountability. mjunction has developed a dedicated web portal which provides round the clock access to the users, who can readily access the relevant data and information on real time basis. The coal e-distribution system has helped MSMC to meet the objectives of the various stakeholders”. UNI