How Singareni Collieries turned the corner

In consolidation mode, Singareni Collieries Co Ltd (SCCL) is making efforts to increase output by streamlining its functioning.

The company is close to commissioning its greenfield thermal power plant and stabilising output at its Adriyala Longwall coal mine project in Ramagundam, Telangana.

It has been an eventful year for SCCL, the company’s Chairman and Managing Director Sutirtha Bhattacharya told BusinessLine , adding: “All the solid work we have managed to do this year so far, including finalisation of contracts, would put the company in good stead.”

SCCL closed 2013-14 with a turnover of ₹11,870 crore and contributed about ₹3,200 crore towards royalty and sales tax among others, including ₹1,688 crore to the State and ₹1,512 crore to the Centre through corporate tax, clean energy cess etc.

As this interviewer walked into his chambers, Bhattacharya, who is tipped to head public sector giant Coal India Ltd, was flooded with calls and visitors thronged to greet him on his new engagement.

He took some time off to explain how SCCL has seen a mini-turnaround this year and is gearing up for a much stronger growth path. Excerpts:

How has SCCL performed so far and how do you see it going forward?

This year we are doing well. Most of the contracts have been finalised. Last year the company produced 50.46 million tonnes (mt), registering 100 per cent achievement against the revised target of 50.30 mt.

The production mix was 10.54 MT from underground and 39.92 MT from open cast mines.

The Overburden Removal has also gone up significantly during the year. During the year so far about 29 mt has been produced.

Last financial year, the average cost of production was ₹3,747 per tonne from underground mines and ₹1,630 per tonne from open cast mines.

The average cost was ₹2,015 per tonne, against ₹1,837 a year before.

The average sales realisation was around ₹1,905 per tonne (₹1,851).

What about SCCL’s interest in coal blocks in other states? What is the status?

At the moment coal blocks have to be allocated.

We have to see the draft allocation. Once the coal blocks are allocated, we will take them up.

Having been allocated Tadicherla Block II (in Karimnagar, Telangana), we are looking at how we can take this forward.

Significantly several states are approaching SCCL to serve them as a consultant for their mining initiatives.

Our experience and expertise in mining would be mutually beneficial as we go forward.

How is the greenfield thermal power project progressing? When do you expect to commission it?

The 1,200 MW (2x600 MW) thermal power project is coming up at Jaipur in Adilabad district of Telangana.

Work is progressing…the chimney is now being erected. We have some issues with the cooling towers and efforts are on to sort them out.

We expect to commission the project during September-December 2015.

For the ₹5685-crore project, BHEL is the boiler, turbine and generator (BTG) supplier and NTPC is the consultant.

How is the Adriyala project progressing? Are you looking at any more projects?

The Adriyala project, taken up with an investment of ₹1,200 crore, has started production of about 5,000 tonnes per day.

There some technical problems which our supplier Caterpillar is addressing. We expect the output to go up as the project functioning gets streamlined.

Two underground projects with a rated capacity of 3.2 mt are likely to contribute to additional production.

This includes the Kasipet-2 Incline and Adriyala Longwall projects.

Sometimes land acquisition is a complex issue. But once completed, we can take some projects forward.

COMMENT NOW