When the nation is starved of coal, production in Talcher coalfield, having one of the richest reserve of coal in the country, has gone down significantly, much to the disappointment of the top brass of Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) and Coal India (CIL).
The coalfield, having eight open cast mines, accounts for sixty per cent of coal production of MCL. The coal output in this coalfield was growing at a rate of ten percent since the birth of MCL in 1992 till 2008-09. But ironically last year, not to speak of achieving the target, it fell behind the previous year’s output, portraying a negative growth.
The situation in the current year is also grim as it produced 16.813 million tonne of coal as against the target of 20.77 MT by the end of last month. The production in the first five months of this fiscal is even less than the corresponding figures of last year. This has put a spanner in MCL’s plan to achieve an ambitious target of 117 MT in 2011-12.
The daily output has gone down to merely one lakh tonne during the last three months. Instead of 25 to 30 rakes being despatched daily from Talcher, only 13 to 15 rakes are being despatched now as the railway sidings at coal mines are empty of coal.
This has pushed several power stations dependent on Talcher coal into severe crisis. Due to short supply of coal to the nearby power plant of public sector Nalco, the company was forced to shut down some of its aluminium making pots. Similarly, the 460 Mw power plant of NTPC at Talcher faces a severe crisis with only three days coal stock in hand.
Though huge coal stocks are lying in the Hingula area, there is no attempt to liquidate the stock despite strict directive by the coal minister to this effect. The coal trade unions blame myopic attitude of the management and land problems for the downfall of this rich coalfield.
Badal Maharana, a trade union leader of Bharatiya Majdoor Sangh (BMS) blamed land problems for the low output. He accused the local administration of not doing enough to mitigate the grievances of land losers which is often leading to unrest.
Contacted a general manager of Talcher coalfield requesting not to be named said that due to frequent bandhs and strikes by land losers and drivers, production has been hampered very badly . He also attributed less output to severe land crunch.
