Even as coal production at Talcher coalfield under Mahandi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) reached 57.5 million tonne in the last financial year, a separate coal company for the region remains a distant possibility.
In the past there have been demands from various quarters for carving out a separate coal company for Talcher region. The agitationists had called for bandhs in the industrial town from time to time to press for the fulfillment of the demand.
Says Purna Chandra Sahu, the convener of all party co-ordination committee formed to pursue the demand, “Talcher has acquired the eligibility to get the status of a separate company long before when it crossed annual coal production of 20 million tonne”. He said, “There are some coal companies under the Coal India Limited (CIL) which are having much less production than the Talcher coalfields. So the Centre has no logic in denying the status of a separate coal company to Talcher”.
Talcher has seven mega open cast coal mines which produced 57.5 million tonne of coal in 2008-09 as against the MCL’s total coal output of 96.3 million tonne. The target for Talcher was 62.9 MT. Meanwhile, sources said, the MCL authorities had issued recommendation to the Union coal ministry certifying they have no objection if the ministry wanted to carve out a separate coal company for Talcher. Experts say, the bifurcation of MCL will not affect the operation of the other coalfield of the company located in Ib valley which reported production of 45 million tonne of coal in the last fiscal. Further, MCL has its hands full it is on the verge of developing vast tracks of coal deposits in the Sundergarh and Jharsuguda districts close to Ib valley.