The Hindu Business Line : Singareni Collieries plans Rs 3,835-cr new projects

SINGARENI Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), a public sector undertaking, will be opening 16 opencast and 9 underground mines at an estimated capital outlay of Rs 3,835 crore during 2004-17.

The 115-year-old coal company will be closing 11 underground and 6 opencast mines during the 13-year period resulting in a production loss of 44 per cent.

To augment the reduction in production capacity and to meet increasing demand, SCCL has decided to commence 25 new projects, the company General Managers, Mr B. Ramesh Kumar and Mr Ch. Venkateswar Rao, told visiting newspersons here on Sunday.

SCCL, in which the Andhra Pradesh Government has a 51 per cent stake and the Union Government has 49 per cent shareholding, is the only coal company in the southern region catering to the coal requirements of power, cement and other core and non-core sector industries. Its coal supply accounts for 55 per cent of the power generation in Andhra Pradesh.

The company had made a remarkable turnaround in the past seven years. It had undergone a turbulent period during 1996-97 when it posted an accumulated loss of Rs 1,219 crore. It had been referred twice to the Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in 1992 and 1996.

The company officials stated that militant trade unionism, poor industrial relations, lack of focus on customers and rising cost of production have adversely affected the performance of SCCL. There were as many as 475 strikes in a single year, which affected the financial fundamentals of the company.

Following this, a series of structural reforms were initiated from 1997-98. Since then, the company posted profit for the seventh consecutive year in 2003-04 and wiped out its accumulated losses in 2002-03.