Team News Riveting
Ranchi, July 14
A day-long workshop was organised under the aegis of Ministry of Coal on “way ahead for Jharia and Raniganj Master Plan”.
The workshop, aimed to expedite rehabilitation of affected families to safer locations in Jharia (Jharkhand) and Raniganj (West Bengal), was organised at Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a Jharkhand-based subsidiary of Coal India Ltd. today.
To avoid any natural mishaps at Jharia and Raniganj coalfields in Jharkhand and West Bengal, a master plan was drawn to rehabilitate the affected families to a safer location. Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL)- both subsidiaries of Coal India- have active mines in Jharia and Raniganj respectively.
Additional Secretary (Coal) Vinod Kumar Tiwari, Joint Secretary (Coal) B P Pati, Coal India Limited Director (Technical) Binay Dayal, Secretary Mines, Govt of Jharkhand. K Srinivasan, former Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner Uma Shankar Singh, Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Singh, CCL Director technical (P&P) Bhola Singh, Assistant Executive Officer, Asansol Durgapur Development Authority(ADDA), Abhijit Samanta, BCCL Director (Tech/Oprns), Chanchal Goshwami, ECL Director (Tech/Oprns), J P Gupta, Prof. R N Bhattacharjee, ISM/IIT, Dhanbad, Prof. V K Sinha, ISM, Dhanband, GM, Anandjee Prasad, CMPDIL, Chief Manager Peeyush Kumar, posted in MoC and other dignitaries were present during the workshop.
In the inaugural address, Additional Secretary Vinod Kumar Tiwari said the government was very much concerned about the safety of humans living in coal-bearing areas in Jharia and Raniganj. He said that the company’s top priority should be to douse fire in Jharia by introducing new technologies. Shri Tiwari said that ECL had proactively doused active surface fire areas but fire remains a challenge in Jharia.
Addressing the participants, CIL Director Technical Binay Dayal said that CIL was committed to solve the issue of fire in Jharkhand and many scientific studies have been carried out in the past. Secretary Mines, Govt of Jharkhand K Srinivasan also emphasized importance of minerals in the state including coking coal.
Prior to the technical session, CMD, CCL PM Prasad, who has been given additional charge of BCCL, welcomed dignitaries and senior officials for participating in the workshop.
Two technical sessions were organized during the day-long workshop. Joint Secretary B P Pati chaired the first session in which former Deputy Collector Dhanbad narrated the factual position of Jharia Master Plan. He said the Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) were prioritizing tasks so that the affected families got to safer locations. Peeush Kumar was the co-chair of the technical session.
Director (Tech/Oprns), BCCL Chanchal Goshwami chaired the second scientific session in which Prof. ISM, Dhanbad VK Sinha talked about fighting fire at Jharia and the efforts made in the past. P K Dubey and Girish- both General Managers, BCCL- gave a presentation on the status report of shifting of BCCL families and its future plan.
