The Rajmahal Coalfield is a large coal field located in the east of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . I ...

Geography

Location

Rajmahal coalfield is centred around .

Area of Operations

Five relatively small coal basins – Hura, Chuperbhita, Pachwara, Mahuagarhi and Brahmani - compose the Rajmahal Coalfields. They form a sort of a broken chain along the western flank of the

Rajmahal Hills The Rajmahal Hills are located in the Santhal Pargana division of Jharkhand, India. They were located on the northern margin of the Gondwana supercontinent, and its hills are today inhabited by the Sauria Paharia people whilst its valleys are d ...

in the north to West Bengal's Birbhum district in the south. The main advantage of this coalfield is that much of its reserves are untouched. Another description shows the Rajmahal Area as being composed of the following: Hura, Gilhuria and Jilbari, Chuparbhita, Pachwara and Brahmani.

Reserves

According to Geological Survey of India reserves of coal as on 1.1.2004 in Rajmahal Coalfield was 13.13 billion tonnes. It was the third highest reserve in Jharkhand, after Jharia Coalfield (19.4 billion tonnes) and North Karanpura Coalfield (14.6 billion tonnes). While Raniganj Coalfield is the major producer of superior quality non-coking coal, Rajmahal is one of the coalfields that has power grade coal at shallow depth (up to 300 m).

Rajmahal open cast and other projects

A major coal mining project of

Eastern Coalfields Limited 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 priv ...

(Rajmahal open cast project, a part of Rajmahal coalfield) is going on in Boarijore, Mahagama and Sunderpahari CD Blocks of

Godda district Godda district (Hindi: गोड्डा जिला, Santali: ᱜᱚᱰᱰᱟ ᱦᱚᱱᱚᱛ) is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand state in eastern India It lies in the northeastern part of the state. The geographical area that n ...

. Rajmahal open cast project (earlier known as Lalmatia Colliery) supplies coal to the 2,100 MW

Farakka Super Thermal Power Station Farakka Super Thermal Power Plant is located at Nabarun in Murshidabad district in Indian state of West Bengal. The power plant is one of the coal based power plants of NTPC. Geography Location Farakka Super Thermal Power Plant is located a ...

and the 2,340 MW

Kahalgaon Super Thermal Power Station Kahalgaon Super Thermal Power Station (KhSTPP)is located in Colgong, Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur district of Bihar. The power plant is one of the coal based power plants of National Thermal Power Corporation, NTPC. The coal for the power plant is source ...

. As of 2020, major activity is going on near Mahagama town and Lalmatia village. Please see the satellite view of the Google map. The Rajmahal Opencast project came up in the early 1980s with an annual cpapcity of 5 million tonnes. The capacity was raised to 10.5 million tonnes with Canadian collaboration in 1994. The capacity is being expanded to 17 million tonnes. EMIL the mining arm of the

Aditya Birla Group Aditya Birla Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai. It operates in 100 countries with more than 1,40,000 employees directly and indirectly. The group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. The group ha ...

has been involved in the functioning of Rajmahal Opencast Mines of

Eastern Coalfields 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 priv ...

. Mining operations started in July 2013. It is expected to produce 200 million tonnes of coal over 12.5 years. With the involvement of the Essel Mining and Industries Limited (EMIL) in the Rajmahal Opencast project, supplies to the 2,340 MW

and the 2,100 MW

of NTPC were expected to improve. Simlong and Chatkam collieries and other nearby collieries of Rajmahal coalfield are operated by

in Littipara CD block. Panem Coal operates the Pachhwara Central project with reserves of 562 million tonnes of coal at

Panchuara Panchuara (also known as Pachhwara) is a village in Amrapara CD block in Pakur subdivision of Pakur district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Geography Location Panchuara is located at . Panchuara has an area of . Overview The map shows ...

References

{{Coalfields Coalfields of India Mining in Jharkhand