In 1917, L.S.S.O’Malley described the coalfields in the upper reaches of the Damodar as follows: "Near the western boundary of Jharia field is that of Bokaro, covering" 220 square miles (570 km2), "with an estimated content of 1,500 million tons; close by… is the Ramgarh field (40 square miles), in which, however, coal is believed to be of inferior quality. A still larger field in the same district is that called Karanpura, which extends over" 544 square miles (1,410 km2) "and has an estimated capacity of 9,000 million tons."[1]
The Coalfield
There are large numbers of seams in the North Karanpura Coalfield, some with thicknesses over 72 feet.[2]
North Karnpura Coalfield covers an area of 1,230 square kilometres (470 sq mi) and has total coal reserves of 13,110.84 million tonnes.[3]
8km 5miles
Chandragupta mine site
O
Sanghamitra mine site
O
Gerua River
Damodar River
Bachra
CT
Tandwa
R
Tetariakhar mine
O
Amrapali mine
O
Magadh mine
O
CCL Piparwar Area Office
A
Ray Bachra mine
U
Piparwar Mangardaha mine
U
Ashoka mine
O
Piparwar mine
O
Collieries in the North Karanpura Coalfield except the North Karanpura Area U: Underground colliery, O: Open Cast colliery, A: Administrative headquarters, CT: census town, R: rural/urban centre Location of new mine sites are approximate Owing to space constraints in the small map, the actual locations in a larger map may vary slightly
3km 2miles
Damodar River
Khelari
CT
CCL Area Office
A
Monnet Daniels washery
W
Karkatta mine
O
Rohini mine
O
Churi mine
U
KDH mine
O
Dakra mine
O
Collieries in the CCL North Karanpura Area (North Karanpura Coalfield) U: Underground colliery, O: Open Cast colliery, W: Washery, A: Administrative headquarters, CT: census town Owing to space constraints in the small map, the actual locations in a larger map may vary slightly
Reserves
Geological reserves in the North Karanpura Coalfield in million tonnes as on 1/4/2010:[4]
Amrapali open cast project, Chandragupta open cast project.[9][10]
Transport
In 1927, Bengal Nagpur Railway opened the 72-mile (116 km) Barkakana-Muri-Chandil line to traffic. In the same year the Central India Coalfields Railway opened the Gomoh-Barkakana line. It was extended to Daltonganj in 1929. Later these lines were amalgamated with East India Railway.[11]
The 57 km long Hazaribagh-Barkakana section of the Koderma-Hazaribagh-Barkakana-Ranchi line was opened for passenger trains on 7 December 2016 by the railway minister Suresh Prabhu in the presence of chief minister Raghubar Das.[12]
Coal-bed methane
ONGC's preliminary assessment of coal-bed methane indicates that four Damodar Valley coalfields – Jharia, Bokaro, North Karanpura and Raniganj – to be the most prospective.[13]
