WB may ask Centre to allow commercial mining in Asia's largest coal reserve

West Bengal is considering to ask the Centre to allow commercial mining in the Deocha-Pachami coal block, which has been allotted to West Bengal Power Development Corporation Ltd for captive use.

The state’s finance minister Amit Mitra said that this block spread across nine square kilometres in the Birbhum district, is estimated to hold 2102 million tonne (mt) of “low sulphur and low ash” coal reserves making it the second largest coal block in the world and the largest in Asia.

Mitra, at the Indian Mining and Machinery Exhibition 2018, said, “A small proportion of coal mined from this block will be required for captive use but tomorrow, when mining starts, we can have commercial mining as well if quantum of coal raised from this block is higher than the quantity demanded by the power companies”.

The coal mined from this block will be used first to supply captive coal to thermal power projects at Sagardighi, Santaldih, Bakreshwar and a project of Durgapur Power.

Rana Som, chairman at the Bengal Birbhum Coalfields – the company tasked with managerial control of this block – opined that the current coal mining rules allow for commercial mining from captive blocks upto 25 per cent but beyond that, approval from the Centre will be needed.

The Centre had initially intended to allot this coal block jointly to Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal along with Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd – a public sector undertaking – after Coal India, which had access to this block earlier, backed out from digging out coal citing various geological reasons.

However, no other entities had shown interest which resulted in this coal block landing up with West Bengal. Production from this block is yet to commence as Bengal Birbhum Coalfields first needs to appoint a consultant to find out the actual coal reserves this block holds.

Sources said the major challenge the Deocha-Pachami coal block faces is an overburden. The coal can only be exposed for mining after a thick layer of basalt is first removed which has made the task herculean as well as cost-intensive.

However, Som opined that this basalt can also be first extracted for commercial sales and in this process, revenue can be generated as well. Thereafter, as the coal seams are exposed, the actual coal mining can commence.

Based on the projection of this block holding Asia’s largest reserve of high-grade coal, Mitra is also mulling the idea to come up with a mining equipment manufacturing hub in this state.

However, the minister has reiterated that the coal extraction process needs to be ecologically feasible. Overburden removal usually involves mass displacement of settlements and green cover.

Public and private sector companies will have to invest in mineral exploration so as to raise mining output and mineral inventory in the country, Amit Mitra, West Bengal Finance and Industry Minister, said today.