West Bokaro Coalfield
Overview
In 1917, L.S.S.O’Malley described the coalfields in the upper reaches of the Damodar as follows: "Near the western boundary of Jharia field is that of Bokaro, covering" 220 square miles (570 km), "with an estimated content of 1,500 million tons; close by… is the Ramgarh field (40 square miles), in which, however, coal is believed to be of inferior quality. A still larger field in the same district is that called Karanpura, which extends over" 544 square miles (1,410 km) "and has an estimated capacity of 9,000 million tons."
The Coalfield
3miles
Ghatotand washery
West Bokaro colliery
3miles
Area Office
Location
The Bokaro coalfield lies between 23° 45’ and 23° 50’ North latitude and 85° 30’ and 86° 03’ East longitude. It spreads 65 km from east to west and 10 to 16 km from north to south. Bokaro West and Bokaro East are two subdivisions of the field separated almost in the middle by Lugu Hill (height 960.9 m (3,153 ft)).
Bokaro River passes through the West Bokaro and East Bokaro coalfields.
West Bokaro Coalfield covers an area of 259 square kilometres (100 sq mi) and has total coal reserves of 4,246.30 million tonnes.
Tata Steel owns and operates the open-cast West Bokaro colliery. It has the distinction of commissioning the country's first coal washery in 1951.
Reserves
Geological reserves in the West Bokaro Coalfield in million tonnes as on 1/4/2010:
| Type of Coal | Proved | Indicated | Inferred (exploration) |
Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medium coking coal | 3354.65 | 1335.01 | 34.42 | 4724.08 |
| Non-coking coal | 274.38 | 14.03 | 0 | 288.41 |
| Total | 3629.03 | 1349.04 | 34.42 | 5012.49 |
Projects
| CCL Operational Area | Projects |
|---|---|
| Hazaribagh Area | Parej East Open Cast, Kedla underground, Kedla opencast, Tapin opencast, Jharkhand opencast, Kedla Washery and Regional R/Workshop. The area office is at Charhi, PO Charhi 825336. |
| Kuju Area | Saruberia underground, Saruberia opencast, Ara open cast, Kuju underground, Topa underground, Topa open cast, Pindra underground, Pindra open cast, Pundi open cast.The area office is at Hesagarha, Kuju 825316. |
| Non-CCL mines | Tata Steel: West Bokaro colliery, Ghatotand Washery |
Transport
In 1927, the Central India Coalfields Railway opened the Gomoh-Barkakana line. It was extended to Daltonganj in 1929. Later these lines were amalgamated with East Indian Railway.
References
- ^ L.S.S. O’Malley, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Sikkim, p.87, Cambridge University Press, 1917 (paper back 2011) ISBN 978-1-107-60064-5
- ^ S.M.Casshyap. "A Reflectance Study of Certain Coals from the Bokaro Coalfield, Bihar" (PDF). University of Aligarh. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
- ^ "Water pollution in Bokaro River". Supreme Court. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
- ^ "The real face of the Tatas: a Tata rap sheet". Retrieved 2010-05-03.
- ^ Prasoon Kumar Singh, Gurdeep Singh and Brajendra Kumar Tiwary. "Critical Evaluation of Geo-Environmental Scenario of Damodar River Basin, Inia" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-08-26.
- ^ "Raw Materials - Coal". Tata Steel. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
- ^ "Inventory of Geological Resource of India Coal" (PDF). CMPDI. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
- ^ "Central Coalfields Limited". Areas - Hazaribagh. CCL. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
- ^ "Central Coalfields Limited". Areas - Kuju. CCL. Retrieved 25 December 2020.
- ^ "Sustainable mining". Tata Steel. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- ^ "Indian Railway History Timeline". Retrieved 2008-08-26.