Coal India ltd's (CIl) Greenfield Amrapali mine in Jharkhand's Chatra district became operational on Friday and to begin with, will operate at a capacity of 12 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal opened the mine through videoconferencing from the national capital. The mine, which comes under the jurisdiction of Central Coalfields ltd (CCl, a subsidiary of CIl), has reserves worth 291 million tonnes and has a life of 30 years.
Owing to land acquisition issues, the mine took around 10 years to become operational, and according to ministry officials, it will be operating only at 20 per cent capacity due to lack of rail and road connectivity around it. The Tori-Shivpuri railway line is not ready, therefore the road network is being prepared which will help in evacuation of coal from it, officials said.
Incidentally, the mine was formally opened just a day after the Union Budget's presentation, where Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that comprehensive measures for enhancing domestic coal production will be put in place."After the Budget was tabled on Thursday, we want to give message that we will expedite matters. In this series we dedicated Amarpali coal mine to the nation," Goyal said.
While stating that power generation is dependent upon the coal production, the Minister sought the support of the people of all mining areas to realise the Government's commitment to provide 24-hour power to all. Coal Secretary S K Srivastava assured that the Government will take measures to increase production and productivity of coal.