Hyderabad: The Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) is drafting plans to launch commercial mining operations in the Naini block situated in Angul district in Odisha, which is known to have reserves of 34 crore tonnes of coal, by February 2021.
SCCL chairman and managing director N. Sridhar, on Wednesday met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi at Bhubaneswar to discuss the modalities relating to the Naini block.
According to the SCCL, the Union coal ministry had allotted the block to SCCL and requested the state government to cooperate in issues relating to forest, transfer of revenue lands, rehabilitation and railway lines.
Mr Sridhar explained during the meeting that out of the 912.79 hectares required for the mine, 783.27 hectares of forest land along with 129.52 hectares of land belonging to six villages are available and only 14 families need to be rehabilitated.
Mr Sridhar said mining at Naini would boost SCCL’s output, which was aiming to produce one crore tonnes of coal every year. It expects to obtain the required permission by March 2020 and has targeted commencement of production by February 2021.
