Coal news and updates

The ECL (Eastern Coalfields Limited) management is under tremendous pressure for early resumption of coal production, at its Lalmatia (Godda)-based coal excavation units, which was halted after it collapsed on December 29.

Production at Kahalgaon (Bihar) and Farakka (West Bengal)-based NTPC units, which depend on coal supply from Lalmatia, has reached a critical state due to prolong interruption in coal transportation and production in the last ten days.

"We are in constant touch with the trade unions' representatives and those opposing the resumption of production at Lalmatia colliery and are trying to persuade them to resume production at the earliest," H K Singh, general manager (Rajmahal area) of ECL, said.

The GM said that five racks of coal from the reserved stock were supplied to both the NTPC units in two shifts from Saturday evening; this can suffice their consumption requirement in the next few days.

"A delegation of NTPC officials of both the units called me a couple of days ago and expressed their concern over the prevailing crisis that forced them to close its power production units. Under such circumstances, the decision to resume coal transportation from our reserved stock was taken," Singh said, adding that production at three units of both the NTPC units was closed.

SOurce: TOI