Coal miner will start work at Naini coal blocks in Odisha
Hyderabad:Nearly 130 years after it was established, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) will take up mining outside Telangana, at Naini Coal Block in Angul district of Odisha on Wednesday. Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka will virtually inaugurate operations at the Naini Block, which is one of biggest coal mines in the country with a capacity to produce one crore tonnes of coal per year within a lifespan of 38 years.
SCCL chairman and managing director N. Balram said that launching mine operations at Naini Block was a major milestone, which was fulfilled after a nine years of wait. The Union coal ministry had allocated the Naini block to Singareni in 2016 and it took nine years to get permissions.
After several submissions from the state government, an initiative from Union coal minister G. Kishan Reddy and the tour of Deputy CM Bhatti to Bhubaneswar helped SCCL get approvals from the Odisha government.
SCCL has given contracts for removal of overburden (soil), digging of coal and its transportation works. The coal produced from this mine would be taken through road to Jarapada railway station.
SCCL is also pursuing with the Centre to lay a new 60 km long railway line, which is expected to take shape in next three years. For the Naini coal block, about 2,255 acres of forest land was acquired which includes 1,935 acres of forest land and 320 acres of private land.
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1. The Naini Coal Block has 340.78 million tonnes of coal reserves. When its coal production reaches its peak, Naini can one crore tonnes of coal production per year.
2. It would be the biggest coal mine for Singareni, bigger than its 17 Open Cast Mines.
3. Singareni is displacing over 12 tonnes of earth to produce one tonne of coal in its open cast mines. In Naini, only two and half cubic metres of overburden removal is sufficient to generate one tonne of coal and hence expected to provide more profits.
4. Naini Block is having high-grade and quality coal of G-10 variety.
