Thaindian News

Raipur, Jan 23 (IANS) NMDC Ltd, India’s largest iron ore producer and exporter in public sector, Monday resumed iron ore supplies from its key mines in Chhattisgarh, a company official said.

“The supply from Bailadila sector mines located at Bacheli and Kirandul complexes, have returned to normalcy after hundred percent disruption for nearly 10 days,” S.P. Himanshu, the company’s deputy general manager based in Bacheli, told IANS.

Several top clients were hit due to the total halt in shipment and production but the company would strive to increase supplies to cover up losses, the official said.

The NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation) was forced to suspend shipments from Chhattisgarh, which accounts for two-thirds of its 25 million tonnes annual output, as railways refused to provide rakes following a protest by cadres of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’ (BJP) youth wing.

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha activists squatted on tracks from Jan 13 to press the central government to increase rail connectivity in the sprawling under-developed 40,000 sq km Bastar region that has roughly 20 percent stocks of India’s total iron ore deposits.

The protest was called off after an assurance that the rail network in the region would be increased.

NMDC’s mines in the state, located in Dantewada district, produce about 40,000 tonnes of iron ore a day. Vast areas of the state are under control of Maoist guerrillas.