Sambalpur: The attempts of Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) to make up the production loss of 4.867 million tonnes in the current fiscal due to disturbances which affected its mining operations was hit by the country-wide bandh as coal mining and supply operations were totally paralysed Tuesday.
The MCL’s coal production which is going on at an average of 4.65 lakh tonnes a day, could plunge further from its negative growth rate of 0.87 per cent to around 1.31 per cent in the current fiscal due to the loss of working hours at its mines if the bandh continues for the rest of the day.
The MCL had produced 101.575 million tonnes till January 7, 2019 against the 102.465 MT produced during the same period in the previous fiscal. Even loaded rail rakes were stopped from moving out of MCL’s coalfields Tuesday.
The work stoppages due to disturbances in the project areas of MCL, which contributes 25 per cent of the total production of Coal India, have been the highest during the current financial year.
As per records, the 10 million tonne annual capacity Kaniha project in Talcher Coalfields was the most affected mine with work stoppages for around seven weeks during the first three quarters of the financial year 2018-19, causing a production loss of around 1.3 million tonnes.
It was followed by the Hingula Mine having the same production capacity which suffered a production loss due to work stoppages on 37 working days during the current fiscal, amounting to a loss of around 1.03 million tonnes in coal production.
At the end of the third quarter December 31, 2018, the four MT capacity Balram OCP remained paralysed for 29 days, while stoppages of about eight working days were witnessed at the 27 MT Bhubaneswari OCP. Around nine working days were lost at the 16 MT Bharatpur OCP, around eight working days at the 16 MT Lingaraj OCP and around six working days at the six MT Jagannath OCP.
Ananta OCP of six MT annual capacity was the only mine in Talcher Coalfields which did not suffer any disturbance during the first three quarters of financial year 2019, and continues to exceed target.
Similarly, the mines in IB Valley Coalfields also suffered loss of working hours, although not as much as Talcher Coalfields.
The major setback at the IB Valley Coalfields was at the 21 MT capacity Lakhanpur OCP, which suffered stoppage for around a week up to the third quarter, resulting in a loss of production of 0.4 million tonnes.
Similarly, the 13.7 MT Kulda OCP lost around five days of work, and the adjacent two MT Basundhara (West) suffered a loss of 14 days of work.
With a target of 162.5 MT for the current fiscal, the company had planned a record production of 100 MT from Talcher Coalfields alone, and the rest from the mines in IB Valley Coalfields.
PNN