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COAL.
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Several
companies are engaged in working mines in this field—namely, the East
Indian Railway, the Bengal, and the Ranigunj Coal Association. Owing to
the want of any proper system of registration in India, it is
impossible to give accurate statistics, but I believe that up to June,
1875, the East Indian Railway had extracted 350,000 tons. The
following I quote from the Report of the Company for the year 1878:—
The
out-turn of steam coal and rubble from the Company's collieries,
during the year 1878, was 208,790 tons. The quantity consumed on the
main line was 162,370 tons, at an average cost (exclusive of carriage)
of 5s. 5d. per ton ; and on the Jabalpur line, 17,600 tons, at an average cost of £1 2s. 4-3/4d. per
ton (carriage included). Regular mining was not commenced in this area
till about ten years ago, when a branch from the Main Trunk Line
brought the coal into successful competition with that from Ranigunj,
twenty-three miles being saved in the journey up country.
V. Ranigunj.*
This field is situated on the rocky frontier of Western Bengal, at a distance of from 120 to 130 miles from Calcutta.
The groups represented, with their respective thicknesses, are as follows :—
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