Lignite scarcity chokes Surat textile units

The textile processing industry in Surat is facing an acute shortage of lignite, the fuel used to fire boilers in textile mills.

There is a lack of lignite supply from the Rajpardi mines of the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) in the central Gujarat district of Narmada.

Moreover, the prices of imported coal, used as an alternative fuel, have gone up by over Rs 1,000 per tonne.

There is no supply from the Rajpardi mines, the primary source of lignite to the textile processing houses of Surat, as the mines have been closed down from the beginning of this year, textile industry sources said.

The reason for the closure of the mines was not immediately known.

There are about 450 dyeing and printing mills in and around Surat and of these, 385 are big process houses.

The price of imported coal has gone up to Rs 2,500 per tonne from Rs 2,500 per tonne.

The coal used by the Surat textile processing industry comes from Indonesia.

Earlier, coal had been imported from China, Australia and South Africa.

However, with China putting a blanket ban on export of coal and Australia and South Africa offering coal at a higher price, the Surat textile industry now meets all its coal requirements from Indonesia only, sources said.

Along with imported coal, the industry is also banking on lignite from the Panandhro mines in Kutch district.

Prior to the Rajpardi mine closure, over 100 trucks carried lignite daily from Panandhro. Now this has increased to 200 to 250 trucks daily.

"As the Panandhro mines are located in distant Kutch, we have to bear an additional transportation cost of Rs 300 per tonne," an industry source said.

"Earlier, we could procure 12.5 tonnes of lignite in a truck from Panandhro. But now they have decided to load only 10.5 tonnes," a textile processor said.

Industry sources said the recent geological mapping of Bharuch and Narmada districts in central Gujarat had indicated rich stocks of lignite in the Jhagadia-Tadkeshwar belt. The supply of piped natural gas by the Gujarat Gas Company (GGCL) was initially seen as a solution the to all the fuel problems faced by the industry.

However, industry sources said the calorific value of the natural gas supplied by GGCL was not up to the required standards and this caused problems in the process.

Against the projections, most of the textile mills did not opt for piped natural gas.

As the supply of piped natural gas is measured by the company using tamper-proof meters, the consumption of gas per month acts as a major indicator for different government agencies to work out the exact production of any mill and this is against the interest of may mills.