Singareni Collieries

Singareni Collieries Co. Ltd. (SCCL) is a coal mining company in India that is 50% owned by the Andhra Pradesh State government and 50% by the Indian government.

SCCL is India’s oldest coal miner, and the second largest Indian coal miner after Coal India. SCCL operates 13 opencast and 42 underground mines in the Godavari River Valley, in southern India, producing 52-million tons a year of coal, as of 2011. The Godavari River Valley basin is estimated to have a coal reserve of 8.79-billion tons along a single 350-km stretch.

SCCL sells 80% of its total production to six power utilities responsible for 6 000 MW of power generation, while 12% of production is earmarked for the cement industry. However, SCCL has been making more advances into power generation.

Adriyala coal project
On July 1, 2011, SCCL started the $190-million construction phase of the Adriyala coal project, in the southern Indian province of Andhra Pradesh. The project would aim to extract some 2.81-million tons a year of coal from estimated reserves of 54.36-million tons, located in the Karimnagar district of the southern state. The Adriyala investment is the largest undertaken by SCCL since 1992, when $180-million was invested in the two-million-ton-a-year Ramagundam opencast II.

The Adriyala coal project is part of the company’s plan submitted to the Coal Ministry that envisages increasing total coal production per year to 57-million tons during India's 12th Five Year Plan period (2012/17), from the 2011 level of 52-million tons a year. The entire production from the Adriyala coal mine would be linked to the 2 100 MW Ramagundam power station operated by India’s largest power producer, NTPC Limited. SCCL and NTPC agreed to a long-term plan under which the coal miner would ensure supplies of five-million tons a year of thermal grade coal to the power producer.

Adilabad power plant
In April 2011, it was reported that SCCL had achieved financial closure for its $1.4-billion Adilabad Power Station in Andhra Pradesh, where it will construct two 600 MW units. It is expected to be operational in April 2014. Of the 1200 MW, 150 MW would be earmarked for SCCL's use and the remaining 1050 MW would be sold to AP Transco.

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