SCCL's global expansion on hold due to dip in coal prices: KCR

Sliding coal prices have dampened Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL)'s plans to expand its footprints globally, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao told the State Legislative Assembly today.
"Singareni which is now excavating coal in Telangana e is now expanding to other states. The company has started operations in the block allocated by the Centre at Naini Mines in Odisha. The company also made attempts to expand its activities in other countries too.
The Singareni officials have visited Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Germany, France, UK and Canada to explore the possibilities. About 13 companies all over the World have expressed interest to work with the Singareni. However, due to fall in the prices of coal internationally, the matter is kept pending for the time being," Rao said.

The state government is making plans for expanding and strengthening the Singareni and in the next five year, 20 more Opencast mines and 11 Underground mines will be executed, he added.
The state government holds 51 per cent stake in SCCL while the Centre has 49 per cent.
"The production of target of the Singareni by 2020-2021 will be about 900 lakh tonnes per year. With this all the thermal power stations in the state as well as a several industries will get coal supply. About 11,621 more jobs will be created," he hoped.

Telangana has about 10, 528 Million Tonnes of Coal deposits in the region. Under Singareni about 1249 Million Tonnes of coal is excavated. There are adequate coal deposits to excavate them for the next century.

The coal produced by the Singareni, besides Telangana, is supplied to Thermal power plants in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states. About 60 million tonnes of coal is produced by Singareni every year.
As on date, Singareni has 46 mines, of which, 30 are underground and 16 are open cast mines. About 56,866 people are working in Singareni. Of this, 34,764 are working in the Underground mines and 10,427 are working in the Open Cast mines.
Rao further said from 2009-2014, Singareni earned about Rs 400 crore profit on an average per year while in 2015-16 along it earned about Rs 1066 crore.