Telangana govt keen on acquiring centre’s stake in coal mining firm

The Telangana government, in an ambitious move to make the government-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) a completely Telangana state-owned company, is seriously considering acquiring the federal government’s stakes in the SCCL.

The coal mining company is jointly owned by the government of Telangana and the federal government on a 51:49 equity basis. The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government is, however, keen on buying out the centre’s shares in the company and make it a completely Telangana government-owned company, sources in the chief minister’s office said.

Besides, the state government is also exploring the possibilities of acquiring overseas coal assets in future to become a global coal supplier, the sources said, adding that a 10-member team comprising officials from the SCCL and the government will shortly visit countries like Australia, South Africa, Mozambique and Indonesia to study various coal mines suitable for acquisition. The committee will submit a report after visiting these countries.

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who held a review meeting with top SCCL officials, pointed out that the proposal to buy out the centre’s share was in line with the federal government’s disinvestment policy, and hence they should initiate steps in this direction at the earliest.

The Singareni coal reserves stretch across 350km of the Pranahita-Godavari Valley in Telangana with proven geological coal reserves aggregating to a whopping 8,791 million tonnes. The mining company is currently operating 15 open cast mines and 34 underground mines in the four Telangana districts of Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam with manpower of 62,805. The company produced 53.190 million metric tonne of coal earning revenue of over Rs100 billion in the last fiscal year.

The SCCL pays about Rs120 billion in royalty to the centre while it contributes between Rs150 to Rs 160 billion in revenues to the Telangana government. The total turnover of the company is about Rs123 billion.

The chief minister, at the meeting with the officials, took stock of the situation relating to coal reserves, opencast mining, ground water mining, work force, leave structure, staffing and mechanisation.

KCR reportedly, wondering on the reasons for drop in workforce numbers, pointed out that when there were about 30 to 40 prospective underground mining areas and people are willing to work, opening of such mines should be priority and worked out. Stating that he should be in a position to inaugurate couple of underground mines before Dasara festival, the chief minister asked the SCCL officials to begin the process of launching six more underground mines by the year end to create more employment.

— news@khaleejtimes.com