Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) is a coal producer based in India. The company was founded in 1975 after
nationalisation of coal mines in India. It operates coal mines in Jharkhand and West Bengal states of India. It inherited all the private sector coal mines of the
Raniganj Coalfield
Raniganj Coalfield is primarily located in the Asansol and Durgapur subdivisions of Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal. It spreads over to the neighboring districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and to Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.
History ...
. It is one of the fully owned subsidiaries of
Coal India Limited
Coal India Limited (CIL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of the Ministry of Coal, Government of India. It is headquartered at Kolkata. It is the ''largest government-owned-coal-producer'' in the world. It is ...
. The company has its headquarters at
Sanctoria, in
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
.
[Eastern Coalfields Limited]
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Backdrop
Coalmining in India first started in the Raniganj Coalfield
Raniganj Coalfield is primarily located in the Asansol and Durgapur subdivisions of Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal. It spreads over to the neighboring districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and to Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.
History ...
. In 1774, John Sumner and Suetonius Grant Heatly of the British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...
found coal near Ethora, presently in Salanpur community development block. The early exploration and mining operations were carried out in a haphazard manner.[Akkori Chattopadhyay, ''Bardhaman Jelar Itihas O Lok Sanskriti'' , Vol I, pp. 46–51, Radical, 2001, ]
Regular mining started in 1820, led by an agency house, Alexander & Co. In 1835, Prince Dwarkanath Tagore bought over the collieries and Carr, Tagore and Company
Carr, Tagore and Company (also written as Carr, Tagore & Co.) was the first equal partnership between European and Indian businessmen and the initiator of the managing agency system in India. The company was launched in 1834 by Dwarakanath Tagore ...
led the field. For the entire 19th century and a major part of the 20th century, Ranigunj coalfields was the major producer of coal in the country.[
At the behest of William Princep, Carr, Tagore and Company joined hands with Gilmore Homfray and Co. in 1843 to form Bengal Coal Co., which opened up coal mining activities. Their headquarters was at Sanctoria.][
Nationalisation of the coal industry was in stages. The management of coking coal mines was taken over in 1971 and the coking coal mines were nationalised in 1972. The management of non-coking coal mines was taken over on 31 January 1973 and these were nationalised on 1 May 1973. Coal India Limited, a holding company, was formed in 1975, encompassing the entire coal industry.
In 2016–17, CIL produced 554.14 million tonnes of coal. It is the single-largest coal producer in the world. Eastern Coalfields Ltd. is one of the 7 wholly owned producing subsidiaries of CIL
At the time of nationalisation, 414 coal mines, almost wholly in the Raniganj Coalfield, came under the jurisdiction of ECL. The mines were regrouped to around 123 mines. Production from these mines in 1973-74 was 21 million tonnes, of which 20.744 million tonnes were from underground mines and the rest from manual quarries. The percentage of production from the underground mines has declined from 98.49% at the time of nationalisation to 18.23% in 2014–15. The focus is on technological upgradation of underground mines. In 2014–15, the technology-wise production from the underground mines (in million tonnes) was: conventional bord and pillar – 0.539, mechanised bord and pillar – 5.335, mechanised longwall (including road header) – 0.025, continuous miner – 1.397, Total – 7.296.
]
Geography
ECL mining leasehold area is 753.75 km2 and surface right area is 237.18 km2It is spread across West Bengal and Jharkhand. ECL operates in Raniganj Coalfield
Raniganj Coalfield is primarily located in the Asansol and Durgapur subdivisions of Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal. It spreads over to the neighboring districts of Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and to Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.
History ...
in West Bengal, Mugma field (in Dhanbad district), Rajmahal Coalmines Projects (in Godda district) and Saherjuri Coalfield (in Deoghar district) in Jharkhand. The heart of the Raniganj Coalfield is located south of the Ajay River
Ajay (/ˈədʒɑɪ/) is a river which flows through the Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The catchment area of Ajay River is .
See also
List of rivers of India
This is a list of rivers of India, starting in the west and movin ...
and north of the Damodar River
Damodar River (Pron: /ˈdʌmoˌdaː/) is a river flowing across the Indian states of Jharkhand and West Bengal. Rich in mineral resources, the valley is home to large-scale mining and industrial activity. Earlier known as the Sorrow of Bengal bec ...
in Paschim Bardhaman district. Mejia (in Bankura district) and Parbelia (in Purulia district) are located south of the Damodar. Palasthali (in Birbhum district) is located north of the Ajay. The Mugma field is located west of the Barakar River
The Barakar River is the main tributary of the Damodar River in eastern India. Originating near Padma in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand it flows for across the northern part of the Chota Nagpur Plateau, mostly in a west to east direction, befor ...
and north of the Damodar.
The formation of coal seams in the Raniganj Coalfield-Mugma field of ECL has occurred mainly in Raniganj measures and Barakar measures. The Santhal Pargana mines and the Rajmahal Area are mainly related to Barakar measures and Talchair series.[
]
Reserves
, ECL has proved reserves of 16.94 billion tonnes – 12.42 billion tonnes in West Bengal and 4.52 billion tonnes in Jharkhand. Total reserves in the ECL command area, up to a depth of 600 m, was 49.17 billion tonnes.[
]
Performance
, Eastern Coalfields had 14 operating areas with 87 working mines, 60 being underground mines, 19 open cast and 8 mixed mines. In 2016–17, ECL produced 40.517 million tonnes of coal, of which 32.319 million tonnes were from open cast mines and 8.127 million tonnes were from underground mines. It was the highest ever production. Offtake of coal from ECL by the power sector was 40.121 million tonnes in 2016–17.
Operating areas
A broad area-wise distribution of coalmines of Eastern Coalfield Limited is given below:
Note: All the linked Area pages provide relevant details of the collieries and carry maps indicating the location of the collieries
Mining plan
An overview of the mining plan of ECL covering 12 clusters is given below. Further details are available on the linked Area pages.
References
{{authority control
Coal India subsidiaries
Coal companies of India
Mining in West Bengal
Companies based in Asansol
Energy companies established in 1975
Non-renewable resource companies established in 1975
Government-owned companies of India
Companies nationalised by the Government of India
1975 establishments in West Bengal