Katras Area is one of the 12 operational areas of BCCL located in Dhanbad Sadar subdivision of

Dhanbad district Dhanbad district is one of the twenty-four districts of Jharkhand States and territories of India, state, India, and Dhanbad is the administrative headquarters of this district. As of 2011, it is the second most populous district of Jharkhand ...

in the state of

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, 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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

History

Jharia coalfield first came into the picture in the 19th century. Mining in the early days was carried out through manual and semi-manual methods, causing large scale degradation of land, forests and environment, and resulting in mine fires and subsidence. In 1972, the mines of Jharia coalfield were taken over by BCCL from the erstwhile private owners and were reorganised.

Geography

Location

The Katras Area office is located at . The map alongside shows some of the collieries in the Area. However, as the collieries do not have individual pages, there are no links in the full screen map. The Katras Area is located in the northern part of Jharia coalfield. National Highway 18 (old number NH 32) / (locally popular as Dhanbad-Bokaro Highway) runs 3 km to the south of the Area. National Highway 19 (old number NH 2)/

Grand Trunk Road Grand Trunk Road (formerly known as Uttarapath, Sadak-e-Azam, Shah Rah-e-Azam, Badshahi Sadak, and Long Walk) is one of Asia's oldest and longest major roads. For at least 2,500 years it has linked Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent. It r ...

runs 6.5 km north of the Area.Google maps

Mining activity

*Salanpur colliery is a departmentally operated mixed mine having both underground and open cast mines. It has a mineable reserve of 16.310 million tonnes. *Amalgamated Angarpathra-Ramkanali colliery is a departmentally operated underground mine. It has a mineable reserve of 64.384 million tonnes. *Amalgamated West Mudidih-Keshalpur colliery is a departmentally operated mixed mine having both underground and open cast mines. It has a mineable reserve of 40.987 million tonnes. * Katras Choitudih colliery is a departmentally operated underground mine. It has a mineable reserve of 67.700 million tonnes. *Chandore, Kantapahari and Gaslitand are hired patches.

Mining plan

An overview of the proposed mining activity plan in ''Cluster IV'', a group of 5 mines in the Katras Area, as of 2012, is as follows: 1. Salanpur colliery is an operating underground mine. With a normative annual production capacity of 0.15 million tonnes per year and peak annual production capacity of 0.195 million tonnes per year, it had an expected life of over 30 years. 2. Katras Choitudih colliery is an operating underground mine. With a normative annual production capacity of 0.22 million tonnes per year and peak annual production capacity of 0.286 million tonnes per year, it had an expected life of over 30 years. 3.Amalgamated Keshalpur and West Mudidih colliery is an operating mine with both an underground and an opencast mine. The opencast mine has a normative annual production capacity of 2.0 million tonnes per year and peak annual production capacity of 2.6 million tonnes per year. The underground mine has a normative annual production capacity of 0.19 million tonnes per year and peak annual production capacity of 0.247 million tonnes per year. It had an expected life of over 30 years. 4. Amalgamated Angarpathra and Ramkanali colliery is an operating underground mine. With a normative annual production capacity of 0.291 million tonnes per year and peak annual production capacity of 0.378 million tonnes per year, it had an expected life of over 30 years. 5.Gaslitand colliery is a closed underground mine.

Fire

180,000 m² of Gaslitand colliery, 280,000 m² of Katras Choitudih Colliery and 280,000 m² of Chandore patch in Amalgamated Keshalpur and West Mudidih colliery are affected by mining fire.

References

{{Operational Areas of BCCL Coal mining operational areas in Jharkhand