This Ramagundam coal mine will soon become a tourist spot

Peddapalli: Stepping down into a coal mine is not something that many have had a chance to do. Except for in a handful of movies or in some rare documentaries, the interiors of a mine, stretching deep into the bowels of the earth, are unknown territories for most. That is all set to change with […]

Peddapalli: Stepping down into a coal mine is not something that many have had a chance to do. Except for in a handful of movies or in some rare documentaries, the interiors of a mine, stretching deep into the bowels of the earth, are unknown territories for most.

That is all set to change with the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) Management coming up with plans to modify a coal mine into a tourism spot.

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For this, the SCCL has chosen the closed Seven LEP (life extension project) mine in Ramagundam-II area, which is located quite close to residential localities in the Municipal Corporation of Ramagundam.

Started as part of the extension of the 7 incline project in 1991, the coal mine was closed in November 2021. Out of 17 million tons of the target, 16.5 million tons of coal was extracted from the mine, which incidentally, will also be remembered for the most devastating accident in the history of Singareni, on June 16, 2003, when 17 miners were killed after water gushed into the mine.

Based on instructions from the Ministry of Coal, SCCL decided to turn the mine into a tourism spot. In order to look into the matter, SCCL Chairman and Managing Director N Sridhar has constituted a corporate level committee along with five General Managers. Research and Development GM Subhani was appointed as the convener of the committee.

A corporate level technical team visited the mine in March this year. The team is also contemplating visiting the Western Coalfields in Nagpur, Dhanbad of Jharkhand, and Central Coalfields of Madhya Pradesh to study the tourism coal mines developed there.

Though the detailed project report is not yet finalized, Singareni officials are planning to develop a few facilities at the tourism mine. Though the mine is much deeper, SCCL officials are contemplating allowing tourists up to a depth of one kilometre. Besides a canteen, an air-conditioned hall along with a projector would also be set up. Since students and children are expected to visit the mine, company authorities are planning to screen a 10-minute documentary on the history of Singareni as well, officials said.

On the other hand, the TSRTC is contemplating a tourism package linking the mine and nearby pilgrimage centers. TSRTC managing director VC Sajjanar, who visited the coal belt area last month, also discussed the tourism package.

Speaking to Telangana Today, SCCL director (Operations, Personal Administration & Welfare) S Chandrashekhar said the project might take three to four months with some more details to be finalized.

A meeting with RTC officials would be held on November 22 to further discuss the TSRTC tourism package, he said.