Dragline power cable worth Rs 1.30 crore stolen in Peddapalli

A massive copper cable theft worth Rs 1.30 crore has occurred at Singareni Collieries in Peddapalli, raising suspicions of insider involvement despite extensive security measures including CCTV cameras and thousands of personnel.

Peddapalli: The incidents of scrap theft are quite natural in the coal mines of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL). Used spare parts of big machinery, copper cables and other iron materials have been stolen by burglars. However, in one of the biggest thefts in recent years, about 250 metre copper cable of the Dragline worth over Rs 1.30 crore was stolen.

A dragline is the biggest and first ever crane deployed by the SCCL to remove overburden (OB). Developed with foreign technology at a cost of Rs 100 crore in 1986, the dragline was deployed in Singareni’s first opencast coal mine OCP-1, Ramagundam-III area. The SCCL named the behemoth machine as ‘Pruthvi Banjan’.

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The dragline worked for 1.70 lakh hours in three and half decades and played a vital role in removal of the overburden (OB) accumulated on coal stocks. As the lifespan of the crane was completed, the dragline was brought out from the project in the year 2022.

However, the copper cable supplying power to the dragline was stolen recently. Workers and union leaders are expressing doubts over the theft of such a huge cable despite the presence of CCTV cameras and the company’s security personnel on guard duty round the clock. They suspected the connivance of officials in the theft.

Big machinery that is used in coal production and other purposes usually break down after sometime. After replacing new spare parts, the old ones would be shifted to sheds, workshops and stores. Knowing about the scrap through employees working in the security wing, some organized groups are suspected to be stealing the iron materials and copper wires.

They are targeting OCP, underground coal mines, CHPs, base workshops and stores where spare parts of machines and iron scrap will be available. Besides stealing scrap, SCCL security personnel, who tried to prevent them, were also attacked by burglars.

In order to put an end to thefts, the company engaged about 1,300 private security personnel besides 900 SCCL’s permanent security personnel. About 3,500 CCTV cameras have also been fixed in different places. Despite all these things, theft incidents have taken place frequently, a company source said.