The Hindu Business Line : Singareni plans 12 more mines

AFTER scripting a successful turnaround and wiping out accumulated losses of Rs 1,219 crore, the State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL), plans to open up eight opencast and four underground mines with a total capital outlay of about Rs. 485 crore during the Tenth Plan ending 2006-07, according to its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R.H. Khwaja.

These mines would help augment additional capacity of about 6.4 million tonnes per year and provide employment to about 6,165 employees.

Mr Khwaja told newspersons that the company has charted out a series of initiatives that would help streamline its functioning and also make the company coal extremely cost competitive.

Given the current business environment, particularly once the WTO norms come into play from 2005, there is the possibility of reduction in import duty of coal from about 33 per cent to about 10 per cent. This will mean a company such as Singareni has to further bring in internal efficiencies and reduce the overall cost of coal production.

"As a corporate, we have sought rationalisation of rail freight rates, improvement of port infrastructure that would help better handling capacity to receive more imported coal. This will have to be complimented by the tightening environment stipulation regarding ash content, stricter implementation of Kyoto protocol, which will discourage use of coal to reduce emission of greenhouse gases," he said.

The company, 51 per cent owned by the Andhra Pradesh Government and the rest by the Centre, plans to meet the ongoing fund requirements through internal accruals. There has been no budgetary support from the State Government and the Centre from 2001-2002.

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Singareni plans 12 more mines