(The Hindu)
The Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) is all set to mine coal outside Telangana for the first time in its 13 decades of existence with the commencement of production in the mine allotted to it in the Naini Block in Odisha on Wednesday, about nine years after the allotment of mine to it.
Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka, who handles the portfolios of Energy and Finance, will officially launch the mine on April 16. At its peak, 10 million tonnes (one crore tonnes) of coal could be produced from the mine in a year and its lifetime is 38 years.
According to Chairman and Managing Director of the SCCL N. Balaram, Mr. Vikramarka would launch the commencement of coal production in the Naini mine virtually. He termed the commencement of coal production by Singareni outside Telangana for the first time was a “historic moment”. He stated the mine was allotted to Singareni by the Ministry of Coal in May 2016 but there was a long wait of 9 years to commence production from it.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Deputy CM Mr. Vikramarka pursued the matter of clearances and approvals from the Ministry of Coal, other agencies and the Odisha government constantly. Representations were made to previous Coal Minister Prahlad Joshi and present minister G. Kishan Reddy.
Mr. Vikramarka visited Odisha twice and held talks with the Odisha Chief Minister and officials of the line departments concerned to pave the way for commencement of coal production. Mr. Balaram stated that the Naini mine would help Singareni achieve the production targets and would improve its balance sheet.
Giving the details of Naini mine, the Singareni CMD said it has 340.78 million tonnes of coal reserves and it would become the largest opencast mine of Singareni as the existing 17 opencast mines within Singareni coal belt (Telanagana) were comparatively smaller. Against the average overburden removal of 12 million cubic meters per tonne of coal in Singareni mines, Naini would require OB removal of only 2.5 million cubic meters, he explained.
The coal available in Naini would be that of G10 quality or with the gross calorific value (GCV) of 4,300 kilocalories per kg of coal. He stated that contracts for overburden removal, coal mining and transportation were already awarded to different agencies. The coal mined would be transported by road to the nearest railway siding at Jarapada, till construction of a railway line to the mine area, for its supply to consumers.
Efforts were also on to construct a 60-km railway line in association with other mine allottees in the area as a common facility. A total of 2,225 acres of land was acquired for the mine including 1,935 acres of forest land and 320 acres of private land.
