Angul, July 14: Production at the Talcher coalfield came to a halt today due to an indefinite economic blockade call given by the Talcher Surakhya Manch demanding fulfilment of their demands, including that of setting up of the proposed medical college.

All the nine major coalmines, producing about two lakh tonnes of coal daily, were shut down, and there was no coal dispatch to the power stations of eight states.

"Coal supply was hit by the agitation and could not even be supplied to the NTPC power plants at Talcher and the Nalco plants. The agitation is a setback to the company's effort to hike coal output as fixed by the Union coal ministry," said a general manger at the Talcher coalfield.

The manch, which is backed by the BJD, had earlier announced its agitation programme if their demands were not met. They had blamed the Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) for the delay in setting up the medical collage.

Yesterday, the district collector called a meeting that was attended by leaders of the manch, local MLA and the MCL authorities. But, the talk failed to yield results when the manch leaders wanted work on the medical college to begin immediately.

The MCL authorities wanted more time till 2017-18 to start the college.

"With requisite land available to us, in last March, we initiated the construction of the college building with the allocation of Rs 492 crore. There will be a 100-seated medical college and 500-bed hospital," said P.C. Panigrahi, the director of MCL.