BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Coal and Power Limited, a joint venture between Odisha Power Generation Corporation and Odisha Hydro Power Corporation, plans to ramp up coal production from Manoharpur coal block to one million tonne by March 2020.
Odisha Coal and Power Limited (OCPL), which has entered into an agreement with Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) a subsidiary of Coal India to sell excess coal from its coal block in Jharsuguda district, has been producing about 7,000 tonnes daily and dispatching 5,000 tonnes to Kanika railway siding of MCL. "The joint venture company has targeted to increase production of the fossil fuel to 8 million tonnes per annum by 2022-23," said OCPL CEO KC Brahma.
Minister of State for Power Dibya Sankar Mishra reviewed OCPL production at a high-level meeting here.Manoharpur and dip-side Manoharpur coal blocks have been allocated to OCPL for supply of coal to the two newly-commissioned thermal power stations (2X660 MW) of OPGC at Banharpalli in Jharsuguda district.
This is in addition to the two unit of 210 MW power plants at Ib Thermal Power Station. Steps have been taken to step up coal production to 4 million tonnes per annum by 2020-21, Brahma added.
Coal production from Manoharpur block started on October 10, 2019 and dispatch to MCL’s Kanika siding began from December 14.Though coal production from the captive mine has started, fuel could not be transported to the thermal power plant due to evacuation bottlenecks.
"It has been planned to transport the end use plant though Merry-Go-Round system. However, delay in allotment of land by the MCL at Jamkani village has forced OPGC to meet its coal requirement from MCL through bridge linkage," he said.
Primarily, coal produced from captive blocks, allocated by the Centre, is for consumption by the designated end-use power plants. When the coal produced at the captive block exceeds the requirement of the designated end-use power plant, there is a provision in the Coal Mines Development and Production Agreement for supply of such excess output to CIL, but it was never executed, Brahma said.The OCPL agreement with MCL is the first of its kind in the country, he added.
The Minister was told that the construction of resettlement colony having houses of 240 have been completed with basic amenities like school building, market place, water supply system to each individual houses, community centre, temple, veterinary centre, training centre, dispensary and all the project displaced families have been rehabilitated.