Huge demand for coal in the market to handle the growing energy crisis in the country aside, Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) has struggled to reach the target of coal production in the first month of the new fiscal with about half a million tonnes of short production.
Against the target of mining 5.84 million tonnes in April, the company could achieve 5.32 million tonnes with the coal company authorities blaming it on shortage of explosives required for the coal mining. The company has ambitious plans to produce/mine at least 2.1 lakh tonnes of coal every day or about 6.3 million tonnes a month, including 1.7 lakh tonnes to power plants, but the average daily production in April was just about 1.77 lakh tonnes.
However, coal production in April was 9.61% higher compared to last April (4.86 million tonnes), when the economic activity in the country was yet to return to normalcy. “Some raw material for the explosives’ manufacturing was being sourced mainly from Ukraine till the break-out of war over two months back. The war has affected the supply-chain and created shortage of explosives for all mining activities in the country and not just coal mining,” a Singareni official said.
The company requires about 610 tonnes of explosives every day to remove about 15 lakh cubic meters of overburden. However, the company was struggling to meet hardly 75% of the requirement with suppliers (other companies) as well as its own units facing the shortage of raw material.
Shortfall in the planned production during April has also affected supplies to thermal plants which have coal linkage with Singareni. The company planned to supply at least 4.8 million tonnes coal to NTPC units, mostly in the South, and Gencos of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra in April but it stopped short of the target with shortage of railway rakes being one more reason.
Of the targeted production of 70 million tonnes coal for 2022-23, Singareni has plans to supply about 57 million tonnes to thermal power units having coal linkage with it.
Meanwhile, a social media post by Telangana Minister for IT and Industries K.T. Rama Rao on shortage of coal being faced by thermal power plants in the country linking it with “lack of vision to the Prime Minister” has attracted huge traction with a majority supporting his view.
