NEW DELHI: State-owned coal mining company Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) seems to be secretly scripting a success story at a time when state public sector enterprises have almost become synonymous with losses, bloated workforces and a casual attitude to productivity.
Over the past five years, the company has doubled its sales by 116.5 per cent to Rs 25,828 crore in 2018-19 from Rs 11,928 crore in 2013-14. Its profits, too, increased nearly four times from Rs 419 crore to Rs 1,600 crore during the same period. The company has created a record by achieving the highest growth rate in sales and profits, which it claims exceeds that of eight Maharatna companies.
Comparing the performance of Singareni with the sales and profits of Maharatna companies, SCCL officials pointed out that Indian Oil Corporation was the best performer among the eight companies achieving a growth rate of 104.5 per cent in profits, followed by other Maharatna companies such as Gas Authority of India (49 per cent), Oil & Natural Gas (36.5 per cent), Bharat Petroleum (31.2 per cent) and Coal India (0.6 per cent). Similarly, in terms of sales Coal India has achieved 55.1 per cent growth followed by ONGC (30.9 per cent), GAIL (28.6 per cent), NTPC (26.5 per cent), BPCL (24.4 per cent), IOCL (23.8 per cent) and BHEL (2 per cent). All these are much lower when compared with SCCL, they stated.
N Sridhar, chairman and managing director of SCCL, which is jointly owned by the Telangana government and the Union Government, said: “Our immediate goal is to achieve the target of 70 million tonnes of coal production in 2019-20 and aiming for 100 million tonnes production by 2025”. SCCL has also expedited the development of certain coal mining projects, including Kalyani Khani-6 Incline block in Telangana, and invited expression of interest for carrying out pre-mining activities in a bid to to cater to the fuel needs of new power plants.
SCCL is also constructing a 1,800 MW power plant in the Srirampur area of Telangana, while NTPC is mandated under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act to set up a 4,000 MW power plant in Telangana. “With the addition of new power plants, there will be an additional demand,” SCCL said.
