The operations of Coal India limited (CIl) in Odisha were hit on Tuesday as its major workers’ unions joined a five-day nationwide strike against the Government’s plans to allow private players in the sector.
There was no production and dispatch of coal from any of the two fields run by the Mahanadi Coalfields ltd (MCl) as workers did not join the first shift, an MCl official said. The MCl operates 15 opencast and six underground mines in the State. With a daily output of about 400,000 tonnes, it supplies coal to a number of power companies in south India and Odisha, including the PSU NTPC, Talcher Thermal Power Station and Nalco. The CIl has near monopoly over country’s coal production, accounting for nearly 82 per cent of the domestic output.