Work at the Talcher Coalfields of the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) remained paralysed on a sixth consecutive day on Monday, affecting the fuel supply to coal-fired power plants in the country severely.
The Talcher coalfields, producing on an average of 2.1 lakh tonnes of coal per day, came to a grinding halt from evening of July 24 after a landslide in its Bharatpur Open Cast Project (OCP).
The company has not been able to produce or dispatch coal due to forced closure of mines. Not even a single cubic meter of overburden has been removed during all these days, forcing mining equipment catching rust.
The quantum loss to the company due to operational stoppage for the last five days has been estimated at Rs 85.68 crore while total loss to the State and Central Exchequer is estimated to be around Rs 55.46 crore.
The stoppage of work in Talcher coalfields has resulted in an estimated power generation loss to the tune of 1339.42 million units.
The NTPC Kaniha, which takes coal from Talcher Coalfields, has reportedly shut two of its units, whereas the Nalco is also facing fuel crisis at its plant.
While the MCL is diverting two rakes of coal from IB Valley Coalfields to NTPC, Kaniha to save it from further crisis, efforts have also been made to divert one rake coal from Basundhra Area under IB Valley Coalfields to Nalco, for which the aluminum company has been requested to arrange the rake from railways.