Road Blockade hits Coal Production by 50% in Jagannath Area

Coal supply to various power plants from the Coal India’s arm Mahanadi Coalfields Limited’s Jagannath Area at Talcher Coalfields in Odisha has been reduced by 50 per cent after the villagers resorted to road blockades affecting transportation of dry fuel.

MCL’s Jagannath Area comprises three projects – Bhubaneswari OCP, Ananta OCP and Jagannath Colliery, which contributes 35 per cent t thetotal coal production of the company that had clocked over 121 million tonnes coal production during the financial year ended March 31, 2015.

Dispatch of coal from 25 MT Bhubneswari OCP and 10 MT Ananta OCP has been severely affected after residents of Dera village blocked road and stopped transportation on April 7 evening.

As against daily dispatch target of 113666 tonnes, the company could dispatch only 61793 tonnes on April 8, 2015 and 55866 tonnes on April 9, 2015. There has been zero coal dispatch from the Ananta OCP since April 8, 2015.

Power consumers, including NTPC Kaniha, TTPS Talcher, Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board, APGEMCO, Talwandisaboo, Sesa Sterlite-Jharsuguda, etc., will be affected due to this disruption in coal transportation.

“Besides affecting production and dispatch of coal, the villagers have locked the Project Officers of Ananta and Bhubaneswari OCPs for the last three days. The villagers also ransacked the Office of the General Manager, Jagannath Area, and disturbed the working, creating fear among the Officers and Staff at Jagannath Area HQs”, says Dikken Mehra, Public Relation Officer, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, Sambalpur.