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Singareni Coal Collieries enjoy over 10,000 million tonne of proven coal reserves

In a setback to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)-led state government, the Centre has turned down its proposal to buy 49% equity stake in Singareni Coal Collieries.
Post bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in June last year, Telangana obtained majority stake of 51% in the country's second-largest coal producer, which was earlier owned by the undivided Andhra Pradesh.

Later, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had proposed to buy the Centre's stake in the company to turn Singareni a wholly-owned firm in a bid to gain full control over coal production.

Singareni enjoys over 10,000 million tonne of proven coal reserves and a little over 1,700 million tonne of reserves feasible for mining in the Godavari valley coal field. The state-owned power producers, including NTPC, AP Genco, Telangana Genco and Karnataka Power Corporation, with power sta tions in the south depend on Singareni for nearly 28 million tonne coal a year, accounting for more than half of   its total production.

The coal miner has produced 52.54 million tonne last fiscal year and is aimed to produce 80 million tonne by 2020. In August last year, the Telangana CM had announced the state government's wish to gain full control over the company and wrote to the Centre seeking its approval. The move was primarily aimed at getting full control over Singareni's operations in the domestic market and expand globally through overseas buys, said a senior bureaucrat. The strategy was also aimed at protecting the assets of the company, which are spread across not just in Telangana but also in Andhra Pradesh and a few neighbouring states. "The current equity holding structure does not permit the state government to take decisions on significant strategies pertaining to the coal company," the bureaucrat told ET last August.

source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com