The materialisation of coal in Madhya Pradesh has gone up during the last three year, according to data released by Western Coalfields Limited.
Last month, state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his party alleged that the state was facing coal shortage. Chouhan even made the “man-made coal shortage” a poll plank and launched ‘coal satyagrah’ at the Pathakheda coal mines, near Sarni thermal power station.
WCL has also said the Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board owes Rs 115.57 crore as on March 31, 2009, to it.
“During 2006-07, the WCL coal-linkage to MPSEB was 8.16 million tonne (mt) while the actual dispatch was 6.66 mt and coal materialisation 81.7 per cent. The linkage was down to 8 mt in 2007-08, the dispatch declined to 6.58 mt while materialisation was up 82.17 per cent. The linkage further went down to 7.36 mt while the dispatch was up 6.89 mt and materialisation increased to 93.55 per cent,” said a senior WCL official.
“Materialisation has, in fact, increased 11.38 percent during 2008-09,” he added.
There are 33 mines in the state of which 22 are underground, 7 opencast and 4 are mixed mines. The combined capacity of these mines 6.74 mt for 2008-09, according to the Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited.
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WCl is planning to close as many as eight mines, including the Pathakheda mine, but at the same time would create eight more. Madhya Pradesh is one of the leading clients of WCL and contributes 16-17 percent to its turnover, said the official.
At present, 7.32 mt of coal is available in Madhya Pradesh. This is likely to decline to 6.54 mt by 2010-11 and further to 5.8 million tonne by 2013-14.