Dhanbad, Feb. 20: For Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) workers associated with the Moonidih Project, living in over 300 quarters of the company, soon there will be light.

Planning Commission member Kirti S. Parikh on Friday inaugurated the coal bed methane (CBM) generating unit at the Moonidih Colliery of BCCL.

Parikh termed it an achievement in the field of exploration and utilisation of an alternative source of energy.

“The coal reserves of the country are limited for the next 40-50 years and therefore it is imperative to look after this new source of energy,” said Parikh.

Regarding electricity production from gas, Parikh said with the success of the project new possibilities have came forward in the field of electricity production. Besides providing an alternate source of energy, the generation of electricity through CBM is also environment-friendly, as it is a pollution-free technology.

The colliery management, which at present is producing 500KW of electricity through two generators installed at CBM, has plans of expanding its capacity to 1,000 KW within the next two years.

Drilling at two places —with depths of 1,056m and 1,072m — have already been completed to produce around 4,000-5,000cubic metre of gas every day.

Around Rs 90 crore project have been provided by the different agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asian Development Bank, United Nations and other agencies including some United States agencies, for the project.

Chairman-cum-managing director of BCCL, T.K. Lahiri said production at the plant was long overdue.

“Now the plant could be used for the other commercial purposes like bottling CBM and supplying it to other industries,” he said.

Meanwhile, a minor fire broke out at the project site due to a short circuit while the programme was on. Securitymen immediately doused the flames.