Coal mining: The wheel has turned a round trip
Raniganj is a little station on the Howrah-Dhanbad fundamental line not long before Asansol. It has a spot in the energy history of the nation, being the first to have coal mining route back in 1774 by the East India Company on an unobtrusive scale. The primary business house to mine coal in Raniganj was Carr Tagore and friends (you speculated right – the Tagore group of Gurudev) that later became Bengal Coal organization. East Indian rail line (EIR) went to the area a century later carrying with it the interest for coal for its trains.
The railroad line changed the whole elements of coal mining. Prior coal would be gathered at the pit heads to be taken in bullock trucks to the Damodar, and during the months the stream was traversable, taken to Calcutta by freight ships. This was unpredictable, costly, and a few times a season a freight ship would invert bringing about a major misfortune. The rail transport transformed everything.
The coal brought to Calcutta cost just a small amount of the coal imported from England. Calcutta’s hunger for coal was getting more unquenchable due to steam ships, jute industry new companies, and in particular, the hearths in a quickly developing municipality. EIR had the option to bring coal straightforwardly from pit heads to Calcutta in abundance of its necessity. Before long Indian coal began getting traded. Steel-production came to India with the primary shoot heater at Kulti in 1874 by Bengal Iron works (as of now IISCO steel plant ) followed by TISCO at Tatanagar by turn of the century. Coal became dark precious stone. Mechanical houses like Andrew Yule, Turner Morrison, Birds, KCT and scores of more modest houses participated in the race for the lucre.
Then rail lines were steaming into the hinterland. Their own operational necessity of coal was sizable. Prior to the turn of the century, rail routes procured their own mining lease in Giridih, later extending mining activities to close fields of Bokaro and Kargali. So did the steel plants. TISCO and IISCO began their own hostage mines in Jharia fields by 1910.
The principal nuclear energy plant came up at Hussain Sagar, Hyderabad in 1920 – by Nizam of Hyderabad – sourcing its coal from Singareni . The Hyderabad (Deccan) Company Limited had gained mining rights in 1886 to abuse coal found in Godavari valley. It changed its name to ‘The Singareni Collieries Company Limited’ (SCCL) in 1920. Gradually and consistently, coal additionally turned into the central player for power age after the primary Great War. At the hour of Independence, India was delivering 1300 MW of nuclear energy.
Post Independence, interest for coal went up dramatically. Coal terminated all motors of development – rail, steel, stream ships, power age, block ovens, modern boilers and furthermore the ovens in kitchens. The steel, railroads, and somewhat power, had their own hostage mines; for the rest it was a free coal market. Public Coal Development Corporation was set up as a PSU in 1956 with base camp at Ranchi in compatibility of the Industrial Policy of the country. The current rail route collieries turned into the core of the new endeavor and its short incorporated all new mining adventures. Lining up with the long term plans it began mining activities in Korba (MP), Singrauli (MP and UP), Talcher (Orissa), other than growing in Bihar and Bengal. More up to date innovation joint efforts with the USSR and Poland offered impulse to present day mining innovation in troublesome mining conditions.
The old mining center points of Raniganj and Jharia were getting tricky. The notorious Jharia fire began in Khas Jharia mines of Seth Khora Ramji Chawda. In 1930, two of his collieries, Khas Jharia and Golden Jharia imploded in flames bringing about inescapable annihilation. The fire never halted notwithstanding all endeavors. The 1934 Nepal–Bihar seismic tremor prompted additionally spread, and by 1938 almost 33% of the collieries were influenced. The fire is as yet seething.
Jharia coal is coking grade coal, low in sulfur and debris content. Coke is the fuel just as reactant in steel making. Transformation of coal to coke includes consuming it in low oxygen conditions till it meets all requirements for conclusive use. Unregulated informal mining, seething flames, exceptionally dirtying coking tasks, coal transportation on inadequately kept up streets and random modern exercises transformed Jharia coal fields into a natural calamity zone. The whole zone remained unendingly under a thick dimness of coal dust and bitter smoke. While the senior administration appreciated pioneer raj feeling and advantages, excavators were a misused part with helpless compensation, extended periods of perilous work and confined, terrible lodging conditions.
Then, interest for coal continued ascending as new steel plants and force stations came up. Subsequent to combining her situation in gathering and government, and floated over the triumph against Pakistan in the 1972 war, Indira Gandhi dove in. Adjusting to communist model of state-possessed center area endeavor, coking coal mineshafts were nationalized in 1972, to be quickly trailed by non-coking mines in 1973. Over the long run, Coal India Ltd was made as a holding organization with its auxiliaries consuming coal mining the nation over. The solitary special cases were hostage mines of TISCO and IISCO. Activities in Andhra Pradesh proceeded with govt-claimed The Singareni Collieries Company Limited. By then of time, coal creation in the nation was 65 million tons.
Nationalization brought its own arrangement of issues. The registers got swollen for the time being with move numbers, and this would stay the bad dream of new proprietors for quite a long time. Unexpectedly the coal business got itself another benchmark – least yield per man move on the planet.
The mid seventies likewise proclaimed a period of defilement in open life. The coal business was no exemption. At some point in mid-eighties, over lunch, I requested the CMD from Dhanbad-based Bharat Coking Coal Limited the monetary state of his organization. He regretted, “I have a lakh of the most dissatisfied laborers set who mine hundred and fifty kilos of coal during the day and steal fifty kilos before supper.”
Pilferage, commissions, pay-offs and political intruding along with assailant exchange unionism offered ascend to an incredible coal mafia that became determinant of all parts of mining tasks. No big surprise, a great many auxiliaries of Coal India was in for BIFR.
Came progression and the ensuing flood in GDP development, and the monetary strength of the coal business improved because of better administration works on riding over expanded profitability. From the hour of nationalization, coal yield has expanded almost ten times to 600 million tons. However it stays a guarantee unfulfilled. India imported around 200 million tons of coal in 2018. 50 years on, we keep on pursuing the fantasy of independence regardless of our huge stores of coal. Our vision of a billion tons a year stays an unrealistic fantasy. Truly, some import is inescapable – around 35 million tons of coking coal for steel plants should be imported as our coal does not have that quality.
Privatization was unavoidable. The public authority of the day chose to apportion coal squares to PSUs and the private area for hostage utilize progressively throughout the years till 2009. CAG red hailed the issue that coal squares ought to have been unloaded in a straightforward way. The subsequent coal trick was one connection in a chain that prompted a difference in government at focus. The Supreme Court eventually dropped the designation bringing about stupendous capital misfortune and a huge number of crores of bank advances getting pushed, adding to the tragic adventure of banking hardships.
The bite the dust is presently projected. Private coal mining is permitted for hostage use as well as for the business use with no limitation on end use. One can discuss firmly on privatization of the center area. That the communist model of government running organizations has uncovered its underside; that the entrepreneur model has additionally now uncovered its weaknesses. The central issue is: what will it harbinger?
Indeed, for the country, there would be production of thousands of occupations. Our import bill because of coal will diminish prompting independence in any event in non-coking coal. In any case, for the specialist and the climate it may not forecast all that well except if we get presumed and dependable business houses with demonstrated history to do effective offering.
