The Singareni Collieries Company Limited is planning to take up seven new coal blocks in other States and 48 mines in Telangana to meet the growing demand for coal from thermal power plants and other consumers.
The 129-year-old State-owned mining company has already taken up the Naini Block in Odisha which has a capacity of 500 million tonnes of coal. Efforts are on to begin works on the New Patrapura block also in Odisha. It is gearing up to take up six more new blocks in Odisha and Chattisgarh.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who has been closely monitoring the progress of SCCL, has submitted a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking allocation of more blocks. Once these new blocks are taken up, Singareni expects to reach a total production of 100 million tonnes.
According to N Sridhar, Chairman and Managing Director, “During the past few years, the Singareni Collieries has witnessed a rapid growth in terms of output, revenues and profit, putting the company into a profitable path and to sustain the growth momentum with expansion, taking up new mines in the State and coal blocks in other States.”
The Singareni thermal power plant has has been generating power from a 1,200 MW power plant and another unit of 800 MW super critical thermal power plant will be set up.
The company is also in the process of setting up of 300 MW solar power plants, with 130 MW likely to be completed in the first phase.
Jump in sales
Coal production, transport, and over burden (OB) removal and profits are much higher and unparalleled in the last five years (2014-19) when compared to 2009-14 before the formation of Telangana.
Sales leaped from ₹5,600 crore in 2014-15 to ₹13,000 crore in 2017-18, registering a growth of 132 per cent. Profits were up from ₹290 crore to ₹1,200 crore up 314 per cent.
In the process of business consolidation, the sales of the Singareni coal also increased considerably. Along with power companies in Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana State power companies are also purchasing coal from Singareni.
Some of the power plants and organisations which used to procure coal from Coal India are looking to purchase coal from Singareni due to timely supplies and the quality of coal.