Coal news and updates

Production hampered at Talcher Coalfields

May 6: Mining operations in the country’s largest Talcher coalfields in Odisha remained closed on May 6 after locals forced a shutdown at all the projects and areas offices of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited.

Talcher Coalfields produces about 2.4 lakh ton coal in day, a release from MCL said.

As per reports from Talcher, locals reached MCL mines early today and brought all the mines to halt. Even staff and officers were forced to vacate the offices of the area general managers.

However, no untoward incident was reported from any area of MCL.

The strike was reportedly called in support of villagers of Bhalugadia in the de-allocated
Gopalprasad West coal block the periphery of MCL’s Hingula Area that was allocated to public private joint venture MJSJ Ltd.

In demand for employment against their land which was allocated to MJSJ Ltd along with Utkal A Block, the villagers of Bhalugadia had stopped the 12-million-ton-Hingula project since April 15, 2015.

At least 128 hectares out of a total of 290 hectares of the Bhalugadia village in Gopalprasad West Block -- originally acquired by the company -- had been allocated along with Utkal A block to MJSJ Ltd -- a JV of MCL, Jindal Power, Jindal Steel and Shyam DRI -- in the year 2005.

This was subsequently de-allocated after Supreme Court verdict last year. While the Utkal-A block featured in the list of de-allocated blocks, status of 128 hectares land of Bhalugudia village lies unclear.

Whereas 56 jobs have been offered to the families of Bhalugadia village having land under MCL, the operations at Hingula area were stopped by villagers demanding employment to remaining 62 families of the village in the company whose land was reallocated to the MJSJ Ltd.

MCL, therefore, is not in a position to offer jobs to the villagers of Bhalugadia whose
land falls under the de allocated coal block.

Talcher Coalfields had produced 71 million ton of coal during last financial year but MCL is prone to agitations and faces maximum hindrances in operations.

The company had produced over 121 million tons of coal during the last financial year, posting an increase of 11 million tons over the previous years, and is targeting a mammoth 150 million tons during the current financial year.

Closure of Talcher mines has a direct impact on common life in the country, as it would result in 2.4 lakh tons daily output loss of coal, which feeds the several power stations of NTPC (Kaniha), TTPS Talcher, NTPC (Simadhari), NALCO, Jindal Steel & Power, Angul (Odisha), GMR Kamlanga Energy Ltd., Sterlite Energy Ltd, TENGEDCO (Tamilnadu), NTECL (Vallur, Tamilnadu), Andhra Pradesh Generation Company Ltd (APGENCO), KPCL (Karnataka), Adani Power Limited (Gujarat), Haldia Energy Limited (West Bengal), MAHAGENCO (Maharashra), WBPDCL (West Bengal) Talwandisabo Power Limited (Punjab).