The Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) has fixed a target of mining (producing) 12.39 million tonnes of coal during February and March months of this financial year, at an average of 2.1 lakh tonnes a day as the consumption of coal by the industry is reaching normalcy.
The company has also set a target of producing 70 million tonnes of coal during the next fiscal. The coal production this financial year is likely to be around 51 million tonnes after the production and demand were badly hit due to Covid-19 pandemic on the economic activity. Till January-end, the Singareni’s coal production was only 38.61 million tonnes against the target of 55.15 million tonnes or 70% of the target. The production in the first 10 months of the current fiscal was also over 26.4% less compared to the same period in 2019-20, when it was 52.48 million tonnes out of the annual production of 64.02 million tonnes.
For the first time in the current fiscal, the coal production in a month has surpassed the production of the same month last year in January. According to the company officials, 5.96 million tonnes of coal was produced this January, compared to 5.73 million tonnes in January 2020. The decision on the production targets for the remainder of this fiscal and the next fiscal was taken at a meeting with all the Area General Managers of the company held here on Wednesday by Chairman and Managing Director N. Sridhar. It was also decided at the meeting to despatch 1.95 lakh tonnes of coal a day to the company’s customers in February and 2 lakh tonnes a day in March.
In tune with the coal production targets, the overburden removal for February was fixed at 13.7 lakh cubic metres and 14 lakh cubic metres in March. “Production of coal has to be galloped in February and March of this fiscal and April to June in the next fiscal as it would be slowed down due to rains from July,” the CMD said at the meeting.
On the plans for the next fiscal, Mr. Sridhar said coal production was scheduled to be commenced in four opencast mines in the next fiscal along with in the new panel of Adriyala Longwall project to achieve the target of 70 million tonnes. He also asked the marketing wing to expand the business to supply of 100 million tonnes and enter into agreement with transport entities.
Further, he wanted the officials to step up efforts to get clearances for mining in Venkatapur, Rompedu, KTK extension, Goleti, MVK and GDK-10 opencast mines.