West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL) is mulling about coal gasification in Deocha-Pachami in Birbhum, considered to be India’s largest and the world’s second-largest coal reserve.
The proposed plan involves extracting 30% of the coal deposit through open-cast mining, 40% through underground mining, and 30% through gasification. According to WBPDCL MD P B Salim, the company will proceed with the coal gasification project and mining operations simultaneously. The gasification area spreads across 1000 acres.
Initially a pilot project for gasification will be undertaken at a depth of up to 400 metres for which WBPDCL has already received EoI through global tenders.
The Deocha-Pachami-Harinsingha-Dewanganj coal block was allocated to West Bengal in 2018. It has an estimated reserve of 1,200 million metric tonnes of coal though basalt rock in the region poses significant challenges to open-cast mining. The total project will incur expenses of Rs 35,000 crore. WBPDCL will share 71% of the block revenues with a mine developer and operator.
While coal gasification is a relatively new phenomenon, there are other initiatives already being planned besides the Deocha-Pachami one. Coal India and BHEL have signed an MoU for gasification at Mahanadi Coalfields in Odisha while Eastern Coalfields and GAIL plan gasification for a synthetic natural gas plan in West Bengal.
