Coal production has been severely impacted at Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), with nearly 60,000 employees striking work today in support of a separate Telangana State. SCCL produces 1.5 lakh tonnes of coal a day.

There was no production today. The employees have gone on an indefinite strike. They had given a strike notice in July, said Mr S. Narsing Rao, Chairman and Managing Director.

“We are closely watching the situation. If it does not improve in the next two days, we will unveil alternate plans,” he told Business Line .

As of now, power plants are not feeling the impact as they have 6-7 days of inventory. Meanwhile, the State and Centre are in the process of making arrangements to get additional supplies from Coal India Ltd, he said.

Active mines

SCCL has seven active mines and its operations are all in the Telangana belt. It provides coal to six power plants, including State-owned plants of A.P. Generation Corporation and NTPC's, 2,600-MW, Ramagundam Super Thermal Station (which supplies power to the Southern States) as well as in Maharashtra and Karnataka with a power generation of about 6,000 MW.

growing demand

Interestingly, SCCL has been intensifying mining to optimise production from its under ground mines, as it is currently falling short of the estimated demand in this region by 12 million tonnes.

NTPC, which takes a major part of its requirement for Ramagundam from SCCL, may not feel the impact immediately as it also gets coal supplies from the South Eastern Coal fields in Chhattisgarh.

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