Saturday, August 04, 2012

In the heart of the coal belt

BCCL township have undergone paradigm shift in the last four decades, but not all is well. Gyanendra Kumar Kashyap reports…

For the 42-year-old Brij Bihari Srivastava, life has completely been transformed in the last twenty years and he thanks the flourishing Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited) township at Jagjivan Nagar, Dhanbad. Brij Bihari is not an employee of BCCL. In fact, he is a fruit and vegetable vendor outside BCCL’s main gate. “When I came to BCCL, 20 years ago, there were merely 15 families to serve to, but today I cater to the demands of more than 300 families,” he says.

As I entered the township on that positive note, I was taken aback by the new pink coating on the houses; as if trying to prove a point that BCCL was in the pink of health (BCCL’s annual net loss stood at Rs.13.63 billion for 2008-09).

Dhanbad, an eastern town in the state of Jharkhand (carved out of Southern Bihar in the year 2000), which is home to BCCL, is the centre of mining activities in the Jharia and Raniganj Coalfield – meeting almost 50% of the total prime coking coal requirement of the integrated steel sector. The strategic location of BCCL is further enhanced by Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratories (Central Mining Research Institute, CMRI and Central Fuel Research Institute, CFRI) along with the popular Indian School of Mines.

Has BCCL has been able to leverage the presence of the research laboratories and the academic institution to its benefit? As I talk to Kalyani Devi (widow of an employee), who has been there for the last 40 odd years, on the changing scenario in the township I can see her eyes brimming with satisfaction over the developmental strides that the township has made. “There are number of issues, which have remained more or less the same, but for us housewives, availability of water is the greatest concern. And in this respect, BCCL has done enough,” says Kalyani. The water supply was once a week 15 years back. Now they are getting water supply everyday. But not all changes are for good. Kamla Charan Ghatak, a sexagenarian resident of Jagjivan Nagar, reminisces, “The township was more like a closely knit family, but I no longer find the same today, times have changed but I have no complaints.”


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