Closure of Mines to Hit RSP Hard

KOIDA ( SUNDARGARH ): The temporary closure of SAIL’s two iron ore mines, which are awaiting lease renewal, at Koida under Bonai sub-division in Sundargarh district threatens to disrupt production in Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP). The closure of mines has already rendered around 1800 contracts workers idle.

The Bolani Iron Mines of SAIL in adjacent Keonjhar district with a capacity of four million tonne per annum (MTPA) also faces similar fate as iron ore despatch has been stopped to Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) in West Bengal.

It is learnt that mining operations at Barsuan Iron Mines (BIM) and Kalta Iron Mines (KIM) under the Raw Materials Division (RMD) of SAIL in Sundargarh have been suspended from Saturday night. The development came in the backdrop of the latest order of the Supreme Court to close 26 mines running on deemed extension in Odisha.

Well-placed sources in SAIL said BIM and KIM had received their first mining leases in 1960 and the first Renewal of Mining Lease (RML) was valid from 1990 to 2002. Since then, they were running on deemed extensions pending renewal. The application for second RML enclosing the mandatory certificates for environment and forest clearances along with necessary documents from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) is pending since March 2013, the sources added.

The BIM with a capacity of two MTPA and KIM with one MTPA cater to the raw material needs of the RSP with daily despatch of around 3.5 railway rakes. The RSP now has a stock which will last for 10 more days and after that the shutdown of blast furnaces looks imminent.

The total impact on RSP and DSP due to closure of the three SAIL mines in two districts would be despatch deficit of six railway rakes per day.

The RMD may seek to continue iron ore supply to RSP and DSP from the mines at Kiriburu, Megatburu, Gua and Chiria in adjacent Jharkhand, but bridging the supply gap of six railway rakes daily seems practically impossible.

Sundargarh Collector Bhupendra Singh Poonia said the administration is bound to honour the apex court direction and appropriate recommendation would be made to the Government.

SAIL hopes to sort out the closure issue shortly as its RML application is in advance stage.

Odisha CITU unit general secretary Bishnu Mohanty said CPM’s Bonai MLA Laxman Munda would launch an agitation in Bhubaneswar for early solution of the problem.