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The West Bengal government is exploring the possibility of technical collaboration with Poland for development of the Deocha-Pachami coal block in Birbhum district.
According to Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, State Minister for Power and Non-Conventional Energy Sources, the conventional open cast mining would be difficult and the State may have to opt for underground mining of the world’s second largest coal block.
Underground mining
“I had been to Poland to find out about the latest mining technology. Open cast mining will be difficult as there is a stone block above the coal block. So we will have to go for underground mining,” Chattopadhyay told newspersons on the sidelines of the East India Energy Forum organised by the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Friday.
The block, which is spread over an area of around 9.7 sq km, has reserves of close to 2,102 million tonnes of coal. Besides Bengal, the block was initially allocated to Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh along with public sector undertaking Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd.
“Other States were reluctant to take it up and it is now allotted to us,” he said.
Solar power projects
West Bengal, which currently has an installed capacity of close to 70 MW of solar power, is hopeful of increasing it to 200 MW by the end of 2019.
“We are also looking to add another 200 MW of solar power by 2020-21,” Chattopadhyay said.
According to him, non-availability of land is one of the biggest constraints in setting up solar power projects in the State.
With a view to reducing transmission losses and to improve quality, the power department is planning to complete underground cabling in a majority of cities across the State by 2025.
“We have been able to bring down AT&C losses to 27 per cent from the previous 33-34 per cent in the last few years. We wish to bring it down further to 15-16 per cent in the coming years,” he said.
The State will invest close to ₹15,000 crore in various power projects over the next few years, he added.
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