By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 10, 2015 :

Coal supply to various power plants from the Coal India arm Mahanadi Coalfields Limited’s [MCL] Jagannath Area at Talcher Coalfields in Odisha has come down by half after the villagers resorted to road blockades affecting transportation of dry fuel.

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) is one of the major coal producing subsidiaries of Coal India Limited.

The Jagannath Area comprises three projects Bhubaneswari Open Cast project [OCP], Ananta OCP and Jagannath Colliery contributing about 35 per cent of the total coal production of the company. MCL had clocked over 121 million tons of coal production during the 2014-15.

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 since 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, Tamilnadu 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 since 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, a MCL press release said.