PMO to Resolve Impasse Over 100-Year Old Underground Inferno In Jharkhand

12 June 2017

The Coal Ministry is steadfast in its denial to be held responsible for the inordinate delay in initiating action to douse the underground fire while the Ministry of Railways has warned of major possible losses to Government coffers if corrective measures are not initiated forthwith.

The heat of the 100-year old underground inferno of the coal-belt of Dhanbad district in Jharkhand has now started being felt at the Centre. The two ministries of the Government of India have locked horns over the issue prompting the Prime Minister Office (PMO) to intervene.

Union Ministry of Coal and Ministry of Railways are at loggerheads while passing the buck to each other for the crisis. The Coal Ministry is steadfast in its denial to be held responsible for the inordinate delay in initiating action to douse the underground fire while the Ministry of Railways has warned of major possible losses to Government coffers if corrective measures are not initiated forthwith.

In the backdrop of the invasive underground fire – that was first detected in 1916 – due to natural combustion across the Jharia coal-belt of Dhanbad district, about 34 kilometers of Dhanbad-Chandrapura railway track faces the possible threat of a cave-in. The fire has been identified at three different locations under the railway track. Consequently, the authorities concerned have been left with no option except either to exercise immediate measures to douse the fire or shifting the railway track. The recent victims of the underground fire in the area have been a father and son duo who died in a sudden cave-in of the land due to the fire.

In view of the magnitude of the consequent ecological and human threat, the PMO convened a high-level meeting under the leadership of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Nripendra Mishra on May 22. The meeting was attended by officers from Coal, Railways, Geological Survey of India, Jharkhand government, NITI Aayog and other departments to discuss steps to be initiated against the menace. The PMO had sought a detailed report on the issue by June 5.

In their respective reports, the two ministries – Coal and Railway – however failed to reach a consensus and the PMO is to take the final call. While the Coal Ministry remained hell-bent on its proposal to shift the railway track forthwith, citing constraints and possible pecuniary losses in the relocation of the track, the railway ministry, however, refused to accept the proposal and accused the Director General of Mines Safety of lapses instead.

The railway ministry claimed that the Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (a subsidiary of Coal India Ltd having an operational area in and around the Dhanbad district) had prepared a detailed report with support of another subsidiary of the CIL, CMDIL on the underground fire in 2003 and the DGMS was supposed to act accordingly. But the DGMS preferred to keep the report in abeyance for reasons best known to it only.

The railway ministry contended that if the track was relocated it would have huge collateral impact on the functioning of different stakeholders. If well-placed sources in the Railway Ministry are to be believed, the abandoning of the existing track and construction of a new track would be expensive.

They claimed that the track was used for the movement of about 20 pairs of goods train and 17 pairs of passenger trains every day. While the goods train carrying coal and iron and steel contributed revenues worth Rs 2500 crore and Rs 300 crore, respectively, per annum by using the track, on an average it got Rs 125 crore from passenger traffic every year.

Apart from the net pecuniary loss of about Rs 3000 crore owing to disruption in mineral and passengers movement on the track, the estimated cost on the construction of new railway track – that is expected to take at least five years for completion – is said to be around Rs 3000 crore, sources said.

The projected loss of revenue to the railways is estimated to be Rs 15000 crore in the five years during the construction of the new track.

Besides, power and steel plants in adjoining States are likely to suffer major setback for want of supply of minerals from Jharkhand. The adjoining States of Bihar, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh apart from those of Punjab and Haryana are supplied with coal and iron ore for their respective power and steel plants. The route is used to feed the Jharkhand-based Bokaro Steel Ltd of SAIL with iron ore, too.

More, there are at least eight railway sidings along the track and they have to be closed down if the track is relocated. Likewise, this is the key rail route to connect the Santhal Pargana region of Jharkhand with other parts of the State.

However, BCCL has claimed to have restrained the fire to spread further in its command area. As per minutes of the meeting in the NITI Aayog on April 17, the company has claimed that the fire that had spread out over an area of 9 sq. km in the past has been reduced to a 2 sq. km area with the launch of counterproductive measures.

Earlier, Jharia Rehabilitation and Development Authority (JRDA) that has been entrusted with the task to prepare the Jharia master plan for relocation of people living in the fire-affected zone along with infrastructure and installations, had elicited the views from Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), the technical wing of Coal India Ltd (CIL), CMPDIL, Directorate General of Mines Safety, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Tata Steel apart from other stakeholders on the issue.

Consequently, a feasibility report for shifting of the railway tracks was prepared and submitted by railways’ infrastructure consultancy agency RITES in October 2015 at the behest of JRDA, but implementation of its recommendations went awry for want of subsequent support from the different stakeholders.

Although the PMO is contemplating major decisions to ward off the possible eventualities, attempts are afoot to evolve a consensus among different affected stakeholders including railways, coal ministry, DGMS, Coal India, etc. with the avowed objective to initiate a collective effort to resolve the crisis. Authorities concerned in the Railway Ministry are claimed to have sought six months’ time to resolve the crisis by burying the mutual distrust among different functionaries of the Government and exercising collective measures.

Meanwhile, Union Coal Minister Piyush Goel is said to have had talks with Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Raghubar Das to endorse the proposal for relocation of the railway track forthwith. The two leaders are said to be afraid of possible political onslaughts if untoward incidents recurred due to the fire.

It is believed that the PMO is convinced enough to go by the concern of the Coal Minister and likely to come out with the decision to relocate the track. But, at the same time, in the light of the proposal by the railway authorities to resolve the crisis with collective efforts within the six months’ time, the PMO is supposed to send a high-powered team to the place of occurrence in order to take stock of the situation.

To top it all, the pertinent question is whether the fire can be stopped to spread beneath the land identified to relocate the track or whether a mechanism can be developed to resolve the 100-year old problem in six months even with collective efforts? The answer to the questions is indeed not in the affirmative, but the government can neither afford to ignore the menace after the recent incident of the father and son deaths in particular nor can it set a deadline to resolve the issue.

Source-businessworld