Pandaveswar Area is one of the 14 operational areas of the

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 ...

located mostly in the

Durgapur subdivision Durgapur subdivision is an administrative subdivision of the Paschim Bardhaman district in the state of West Bengal, India. Overview The rocky undulating topography with laterite soil found in the western part of the district extends to the wes ...

Paschim Bardhaman district Paschim Bardhaman district is a predominantly urban mining-industrial district in West Bengal. The headquarter of the district is Asansol. It was formed on 7 April 2017 after bifurcation of the erstwhile Bardhaman district as the 23rd distric ...

with a spread over to the

Suri Sadar subdivision Suri Sadar subdivision is an administrative subdivision of Birbhum district in the state of West Bengal, India. Overview Starting in its northern parts with the Brahmani-Mayurakshi Basin, a sub-micro physiographic region occupying the area betw ...

Birbhum district Birbhum district () is an administrative unit in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the northernmost district of Burdwan division—one of the five administrative divisions of West Bengal. The district headquarters is in Suri. Other impo ...

, across the Ajay, in the state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

, India.

Geography

Location

The Pandaveswar Area is located around The Pandaveswar Area is bounded by the rural areas of Birbhum district on the north,

Faridpur Durgapur Durgapur Faridpur is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Durgapur subdivision of Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. History Faridpur is an old village. The area was earlier densely f ...

CD Block on the east, Jhanjra, Bankola Area and Sonpur Bazari on the south, and the rural areas of

Pandabeswar Pandabeswar (also spelled Pandaveswar) is an administrative centre in Pandabeswar CD Block in Durgapur subdivision of Paschim Bardhaman district in the state of West Bengal, India. Geography Police station Pandabeswar police station has juri ...

and

Jamuria Jamuria is a neighbourhood in Asansol of Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is governed by Asansol Municipal Corporation Geography Location Jamuria is located at . It has an average elevation of 111 metres ...

CD Blocks on the west.

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The map alongside shows some of the collieries in the Pandaveswar Area. As the collieries do not have individual pages, there are no links in the full screen map. However, all places in the map of the northern portion of Durgapur subdivision, placed below, are linked in the full screen map.

Coal

As per the Shodhganga website, collieries in the Pandaveswar Area are: Madaipur, Mandarbani, Nutandanga, Pandaveswar, Dalurbandh, Kendra, Samla, South Samla, Khottadih, Kankartala, Dalurbandh OCP, Palasthali OCP and Gangaramchak OCP. As per ECL website telephone numbers, operational collieries in the Pandaveswar Area in 2018 are: Dalurband Colliery, Khottadih OCP, Khottadih UG, Madhaipur Colliery, Manderbony Colliery, Pandaveswar Colliery and South Samla Colliery.

Mining plan

An overview of the proposed mining activity plan in Cluster No. 12, consisting of 15 reconstituted mines covering Pandaveswar Area, Sonpur Bazari, Jhanjra and Bankola Area as of 2016, is as follows: 1. Pandaveswar & Dalurband underground mine and open cast project, combining Pandaveswar UG mine, Pandaveswar OC project and Dalurband UG mine & OC project, has annual production capacity of 1.47 million tonnes for UG and 2.00 mt for OC.
2. Manderboni UG mine has annual production capacity of 0.17 mt.
3. Madhaipur UG mine & OC patch has annual production capacity of 0.21 mt for UG mine and 0.57 mt for OC patch.
4. Nutandanga UG mine has annual production capacity of 0.12 mt.
5. Kendra UG mine has annual production capacity of 0.10 mt.
6. Samla UG mine has annual production capacity of 0.12 mt.
7. Sonpur Bazari OC project has annual production capacity of 12.00 mt.
8. South Samla UG mine has annual production capacity of 0.11 mt.
9. Nakrakonda and Kumardihi B UG mine & OC project, formed with the amalgamation of Nakrakonda UG mine, Nakrakonda B OC project, Nakrakonda B OC project (extension), Kumardihi B UG mine, Kumardihi B OC patch and Purushattompur OC patch, has annual production capacity of 1.12 mt for UG mine and 3.00 mt for OC project.
10. Kumardihi A UG mine has annual capacity of 0.20 mt. Kumardihi A OC patch is exhausted and being backfilled.
11. Jhanjra UG mine has annual production capacity of 5.00 mt.
12. Tilaboni UG mine has annual production capacity of 2.14 mt.
13. Shyamsundarpur UG mine has annual production capacity of 1.12 mt.
14. Bankola UG mine has annual production capacity of 0.30 mt. Bankola OC patch is exhausted and being backfilled.
15. Khottadih UG mine and OC project has annual production capacity of 0.90 mt for UG mine and 2.20 mt for OC project.
Note: Mandermoni Extension/ Rangamati A UGP and Madhaipur Extension/ Rangamati B UGP are not viable in the present time.

Subsidence

Traditionally many underground collieries have left a void after taking out the coal. As a result, almost all areas are facing subsidence. As per CMPDIL, there were 6 points of subsidence in the Pandaveswar Area involving 49.62 hectares of land.

Migrants

Prior to the advent of

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

, the entire region was a low-productive rice crop area in what was once a part of the

Jungle Mahals Jungle Mahals ( jungle estates) was a district formed by British possessions and some independent chiefdoms lying between Birbhum, Burdwan, Midnapore and the hilly country of Chota Nagpur in what is now the Indian state of West Bengal.O’Malle ...

. The ownership of land had passed on from local

adivasi The Adivasi (also transliterated as Adibasi) are heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term is a recent invention from the 20th century and is now widely used as a self-designation by groups classified as Scheduled Tr ...

s to agricultural castes before mining started. However, the Santhals and the

Bauris Bauri is a caste primarily residing in the state of West Bengal, India where it is considered as one of the Scheduled Castes. There are significant populations in the states of Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar. They are usually involved in activitie ...

, referred to by the colonial administrators as "traditional coal cutters of Raniganj" remained attached to their lost land and left the mines for agricultural related work, which also was more remunerative. It forced the mine-owners to bring in outside labour, mostly from Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. In time the migrants dominated the mining and industrial scenario. The pauperization and alienation of the adivasis have been major points of social concern.

Transport

The Andal-Sainthia branch line passes through this Area. NH 14 (old number NH 60) pass through the Pandaveswar Area.

References

{{Paschim Bardhaman topics Coal mining operational areas in West Bengal