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Electricity fails ECL mine

8 October 2012

statesman news service
SALTORA (Bankura), 8 OCT: For want of electricity, production at an Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) mine has been forced to suspend production for nearly a month.  
The Kalidaspur coal mine in Bankura got mining approval in 1986 and started production in 1993, for an estimated investment of about Rs 74 crore.
The mine has produced an average of 300 tons per day of coal.  
On 12 September, two of the mine's transformers broke. "Both of the transformers collapsed suddenly and we were left with no choice to help resuming production," said Kalidaspur Deputy Coal Mining Engineer B C Sahoo. The Damodar Valley Corporation’s sub-station in Nandanpur provides power to the mine.
"We have got a diesel generator in Kalidaspur, but that cannot afford to help mine’s production. Meanwhile, we have shifted the transformers to our company workshop at Sitarampur and expect they will be repaired within another week," said Mr Narayan Jha, general manager of the Satgram Area, which includes Kalidaspur.    
The mine is in Saltora, the illegal mining capital of Bankura, where organised coal mafiosi have been looting coal for a decade.
Though the illegal trafficking has stopped since the change of the guard in the state, thieves have prepared to start extraction of coal from Bakulia.  
ECL’s official mine has a staff of 729. The illegal miners intrude into the trade with at least 500 labourers.  
Asked whether the suspension of production at Kalidaspur would encourage illegal miners, Mr Jha said: “We have taken all measures to prevent looting from Kalidaspur.”