Jharkhand's Rajmahal mine stir: Power supply to eastern states may be hit

Protest at Rajmahal mine may hit power supply; expansion stalled as villages demand more relief

Eastern India might face a shortage of power supply, from the ongoing protest by local villages at the Rajmahal mine in Jharkhand.

It is one of the largest coal mines in the region and the source of fuel for two big thermal power units — Farakka (2,100 Mw) in West Bengal and Kahalgaon (2,340 Mw) in Bihar.

The villages around Rajmahal are protesting against the existing compensation for land acquisition by Eastern Coalfileds (ECL), a subsidiary of state-owned Coal India. The 700-million tonne (mt) mine has been operational for over two decades and has exhausted a little more than 60