Major boost for SCCL: Naini Coal mine gets Stage-II forest clearance

Singareni Collieries, which is planning to cross the target of 75 million tonnes extraction next fiscal, has received a shot in the arm with Centre providing stage-II forest clearance to the Naini coal block

Hyderabad: With the Naini Coal opencast mine operated by the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in Angul district of Odisha getting Stage-II forest clearance from the Union Ministry of Forests and Environment, the company is planning to start coal production from the first week of May.

Singareni Collieries, which is planning to cross the target of 75 million tonnes extraction next fiscal, has received a shot in the arm with Centre providing stage-II forest clearance to the Naini coal block.

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The Naini coal block, with an estimated coal reserves of 340 million tonnes of high-grade coal, received its environmental clearance in October 2021, while the stage-I forest clearance was granted in July 2021 and the stage-II permission was granted in the second week of March. The Singareni management had appointed a team of officers to get all the clearance for the coal block and with their efforts the Stage-II forest clearance could be achieved. Since, the coal mine has received all the necessary environment and forest clearances, the company was now planning to commence coal production from May, a senior official of the company informed.

Naini Coal Mine, a 10 million-tonnes-per-annum opencast mine, total mining area lease for the project is 912.79 hectares, including 783 hectares of forest land (643 hectares of which is reserve forest).

Damodar Valley Corporation, a leading thermal power producer from Jharkhand, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to purchase 43 lakh tonnes of coal per annum from the Naini coal block last December.

As Singareni is the only coal producing company in Southern India, it has to supply coal to the power plants in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.