Hyderabad | Nov 13, 2017: In tune with the promises made by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) is aggressively pursuing its plans to expand its operations by opening at least six coal mines by the end of this fiscal. Sources confirmed that two mines each are proposed in Mancherial district (Mandamarri), Bhadradri-Kothagudem district (Kothagudem and Manuguru), and Jayashankar-Bhupalpally district within the next five to six months.

A report in this regard has been submitted to the Chief Minister for his approval and a final nod is awaited. The officials are eager to commence field work in at least one mine by this year end to ensure significant increase in coal production by taking up capacity addition for the current fiscal. While four mines would be underground, two others would be opencast mines. However, the officials did not reveal the exact locations as the file is with the Chief Minister for his consideration.

Earlier this year, the coal company released its five-year action plan to start operations in 20 new opencast and 11 underground mines over the next five years with a target to produce 900 lakh tonnes coal per year by 2020-21. This will create job opportunities for around 12,000 persons. Singareni is currently operating 46 mines, including 30 underground and 16 opencast mines, with about 56,866 workers.

KCR’s promise

After the Telangana Boggu Gani Karmika Sangham (TBGKS) registered a stupendous victory in the recently held recognised union elections of SCCL, Chandrashekhar Rao announced that the State government will ensure job security and better working conditions for all the workers. “Though they are expensive, underground mines provide employment to a large extent of the Singareni workforce. Hence, we will ensure that the company opens more underground mines providing more jobs,” he told the workers.

Further, the officials have confirmed that there were no plans to phase out the existing underground mines altogether. The company, however, was considering conversion of some existing underground mines into opencast, depending on their depth and geological conditions as opencast mines give better yield and have higher safety factor. However, underground mines provide more employment, compared to opencast mines. “Continuation of opencast mines is necessary to negate losses incurred by underground mines,” a senior official told Telangana Today. At present, opencast mines produce 82 per cent coal with 18 per cent workforce, while underground mines account for 17 per cent of the coal production with 61 per cent workforce.

(Source: https://telanganatoday.com/)