Morung Express News
Dimapur | September 9
Amidst the inherent need for more power supply in Nagaland to meet its power demands, a senior Scientist and Head of the Coal Chemistry Division in the North East Institute of Science & Technology (NEIST), Jorhat, Dr BP Baruah today asserted that Nagaland with its huge coal deposits can help make use of the natural resources to generate thermal power energy in the state to supplement its power demands.
Dr Baruah, who is in Dimapur to deliver a lecture on coal at a programme organised by the Nagaland Geology & Mining Department, in an interaction with The Morung Express said that there are four coal bearing states in the Northeast – Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh – with an estimated one billion tonnes of coal in the area. He informed that Nagaland has a good share of the coal deposit with an estimated 315 million tonnes in the state.
Saying that coals are a good source of energy, Dr Baruah asserted that it can be used for generation of thermal power as the coal in the northeast, unlike those found in other parts of the country, have high sulphur content. This means that it has a higher calorific value than that of the other coals in other parts of the country. He informed that scientists have innovated some advanced technological machineries, through which coals with high sulphur content can be brought into beneficial use. “…Nagaland with a good deposit of coals can serve as an energy resource,” Dr Baruah asserted, while saying that without power no state can develop industrially.
However, on the question of environmental affects, Dr Baruah asserted that coal mining in the state has to be scientific and environment-friendly. He confessed that the method of coal mining in the state is not scientific and that it is having ill effects on the environment like acidification of the mines and pollution of the land and water in the area. However, Dr Baruah asserted that there would be nothing wrong with the “thermal power plants” as they meet all the standards and would be environment-friendly.
A Senior Geologist in the Department of Geology & Mining, Mar Imchen who was also present at the interaction, asserted that thermal power plants would be viable and sustainable in the state, if the coal reserves are properly utilised and thermal power plants set up in proper places.
On environmental pollution, Mar Imchen asserted that the coal mining in the state has to be made scientific, methodological and environment-friendly. In this regard he maintained that the land owners in the state should not be ‘greedy’ and think only for themselves but they should also think for the future generations.
Vaguely discouraging setting up of hydel power plants, Mar Imchen also made a pointer that most of the rivers in Nagaland are rain fed and therefore during winter seasons, the rivers run dry which would hamper electricity generation in the state. But with proper planning and scientific exploitation of the coal reserves in the area and setting up thermal power plants would supplement the power requirements in the state.
In 2008-2009, Indian coal reserves produced 500 million metric tones (MMT) of coal and another 55 MMT were imported to supplement the coal requirements of the country. Out of the total coal requirements, 75% is used to generate electricity, 13% in iron and steel industries and 5% used in the cement industry.
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