Coal will be mined from Bastacolla and Bera for 5 years and 1 years respectively. Bastacolla has a stock of approx. 70 lakh tonnes of coal, production to start from this month.
Dhanbad, August 1: BCCL has approved the mining plan of two coal mines. Both collieries come under the Bastacolla area. Approval for this was given on Friday at the BCCL board meeting. Parbatpur coal block also got the nod for extracting coal in this meeting. Also, CMPDIL has been asked to prepare a project report on this. There was also a discussion on helping the district administration with CSR funds to fight the Covid pandemic.
Out of the two mines which got approval, Bastacolla has more importance. The cost for this project is ₹ 465 Crore, for which contract has been given to M/s At Dev Prabha. Here the reserve of coal is around 7 million tonnes. As per information, the mining will start on August 5. BCCL has high hopes from this project. If this project is successful, not only the production target will be met but also the company will go a long way in overcoming the current economic crisis.
The board has also approved the mining plan of Bera Colliery on Friday. Under this, a target of producing 23,000 tonnes has been set in One year. However, it is expected that 40,000 tonnes of coal will be produced from here. This colliery will be operated by BCCL itself and overburden (OB) has already been removed from the mining area. Production could not begin here before due to non-determination of the grade by the coal controller. Now as the mining plan has been approved, it is expected that the coal controller will also get the green signal in a month, soon after which production will be started.
In the Friday meeting, steps were also taken to start production from the Parbatpur coal block. Under this, CMPDIL has been asked to prepare a project report, after which, further process will begin. However, production of coal bed methane by GAIL is also going on from here. The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has transferred the Parbatpur coal block to BCCL in the last months of the last financial year. However, all the maintenance work was carried out by the SAIL due lockdown.
The district administration has asked for help from BCCL through CSR fund to deal with Covid-19. It has been decided to build two electric crematoriums in view of the problems in the cremation of the deceased due to coronavirus. For this, BCCL has been requested to give ₹ 5 crore from the CSR fund. However, the approval from the Coal India management and the Coal Ministry is still awaited.
“Corona is expected to continue its havoc for three more months at the moment. In such a situation, there is doubt that production will be complete. However, we have approved two mining plans. Parbatpur has also been included as a step to increase production. We are preparing more and more so that we can move towards the goal as soon as this crisis ends.” Said PM Prasad, CMD, BCCL
