VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) achieved yet another milestone as it emerged as the third Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) next to Singareni Collieries and Coal India Ltd for bagging contracts for commercial coal mining in other States. The APMDC, which secured the Suliyari block in the Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh last year, started commercial coal mining from March 10.
Though the Centre allocated the block to the APMDC in 2007, mining operations did not commence due to various reasons. However, after 2019 the State government focused on coal mining, following which, the APMDC started coal mining from August 2021.
Speaking to the media, APMDC vice-chairman and MD VG Venkata Reddy said the APMDC will produce 5 million tonnes of coal per year from the Suliyari block. Informing that the APMDC began mining after investing Rs 2000 crore, he said the corporation will earn `1200 crore per year from the coal block.
“Given the 110 million tonnes-coal reserves in the mine, the mining activity will continue for the next 22 years. There are also possibilities of increasing the annual production to 7 lakh million tonnes.”