Ramgarh: Heavy and continuous rainfall over the past few days has disrupted coal production and dispatch in Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) mines across Ramgarh district, officials said.Opencast mines in Rajrappa, Argada, Barka-Sayal and Kuju areas have been hit by waterlogging in pits, slippery haul roads and rainwater accumulation in coal stockyards. Operations of Heavy Earth Moving Machines (HEMMs), including dumpers, shovels and excavators, have become difficult. In some patches, waterlogged mine benches forced suspension of mining as a safety precaution.Coal transportation has also slowed down as approach roads to sidings turned muddy, affecting rake loading and truck dispatch to thermal power plants.Kalyanji Prasad, general manager, Charhi area, CCL, said on Friday, “Due to incessant rain, coal production has very slightly affected and registered nominal drop in coal production as we have best monsoon preparation with making drainage, installation heavy pumps and repair of roads.”“We are pumping out water from the mines and production will be normalized once weather improves,” the GM said.R K Sinha, General Manager, Kuju area, said unexpected heavy rain had affected production and dispatch. “We have deployed additional power to normalise our coal production,” he said.
