Dhanbad: Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL) is working on a plan to mine coal from the area along the Dhanbad-Chandrapura railway line, a process it hopes will prevent of the spread of the underground fire because of which trains have stopped plying on the line that has been closed for more than a year now.

This has prompted the railways to seek certain clarifications from the Coal India subsidiary on the formalities of providing an NOC for beginning mining operations. It has also asked BCCL about the cost of dismantling and then rebuilding the existing railway infrastructure after the land was handed back.

BCCL director, technical (project and planning) N.K. Tripathi said the basic aim of mining coal and removing the debris (mines overburden) from beneath the Dhanbad-Chandrapura line was to mitigate the fire and also help the PSU salvage some of the precious coking coal that was being wasted.

"The best way to control the fire is to take out the fire affected coal and prevent the further spread of the fire," Tripathi told The Telegraph on Thursday. He did not provide an estimate of the coal reserves, but said that coal excavated from beneath the 14km stretch of the railway line would help BCCL save revenue by reducing imports to supply to the steel industry.

During his visit here on July 23 and 24, Union coal secretary Inderjit Singh held talks with officials of the railways and BCCL about the proposed hand over of the land for mining.

Singh also wrote to Railway Board chairman Aswani Lohani on August 29 emphasising the need for early transfer of the Dhanbad-Chandrpura railway line to BCCL.

Authorities of the Dhanbad railway division then followed it up with a letter to CMD of BCCL Ajay Kumar Singh on August 31, seeking details of the land handover.

Services of 26 pair of passenger and express trains had been discontinued following the closure of the Dhanbad-Chandrapura line on June 15 last year. Of these, seven pairs of trains from Dhanbad are being run via the Dhanbad-Gomoh section.

But over 5 lakh residents of Katras and adjoining areas Sonardih, Bhatmurna, Nawagarh, Baghmara, Angarpathra, Bansjora, Sijua and Jamuniatand have been badly hit. For, they were using the Dhanbad-Chandrapura-Muri Passenger train which is among the trains that have been withdrawn following the closure of the 34km line.

Two pairs of trains are plying on a 20km section of the railway line. But no trains ply on the remaining 14km stretch, from Kusunda to Phularitand, that includes Katras station, because of the underground fire.

CPRO of East Central Railway, Hajipur, Rajesh Kumar said efforts were on to run trains through an alternative route via Kusunda, Matari, Telo and Chandrapura.