Balram opencast mine of Mahanadi Coalfields has witnessed its coal operations being affected by villagers’ agitation, as the project remains paralyzed for the past two weeks.
Sources aware of the fact have reported that coal dispatch at Balram OCP was forcibly stopped by the villagers on 6 Oct’19, while the overburden removal operation has been halted since 10 Oct’19.
Daily overburden removal in excess of 30,000 cubic meters as well as 10,000 MT each of coal production and dispatch has been affected as a result of clash of interest between villagers of Solada and Danara.
Meanwhile, villagers of another village, Telaipassi, in the peripheral area of neighboring Bharatpur Area, had forcibly closed office of the Project Officer and Workshop of Balram OCP along with Bharatpur mine on 18 Oct’19.
However, the villagers later stopped the protest, allowing work to resume at Bharatpur mine.
It is pertaining to note that even the intervention of administration has not produce any positive output on issue between Solada and Danara issue, which has continued the struggles at Balram OCP.
As a matter of fact, Balram OCP, having a capacity of 45 Lakh Tonnes per annum, is the chief fuel source of many industries like NALCO, JITPL, JSPL, BSL and GMR.
MCL has faced a series of nuisance in different areas due to agitation and other issues, which have resulted in its production lagging by 8% Y-o-Y in the first half period of FY20. The company hopes that an amicable solution to the bottleneck is reached so that further losses are arrested.
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