Singareni to vie for 10 coal blocks in auction soon

The Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) is planning to get at least another 10 coal blocks in the auction as part of its efforts to increase the coal production from the present 70 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 100 MTPA over the next few years.

At the joint consultative committee meeting with the recognised trade unions and officers’ association here on Tuesday, putting in eight hours of quality work hours a day was necessary for every worker, officer and other employees of the company to reach the target of 100 MTPA coal production.

Chairman and Managing Director of the company N. Balram said the SCCL could not capitalise on coal blocks’ auction by staying away from it in the past but soon the company would be vying for at least 10 out of 100 coal blocks coming up for action. The company was planning not to remain only as a coal mining company but to diversify into other businesses, particularly exploration of rare earth minerals by entering into agreements with national level research institutions.

Singareni was planning to expand its activities to nine other States in the country and also to five countries such as Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Australia and African countries. Apart from thermal and solar power generation, into which the company was already into, SCCL was planning to foray into production methanol, green hydrogen, pumped storage hydel and others.

Accordingly, the company was planning to establish a 2,400 thermal power plant in Odisha based on coal produced from its Naini block. Senior executives of the company, representatives of trade unions and officers’ association participated in the meeting.