Singareni Collieries to supply coal to Tamil Nadu power projects.

The Singareni Collieries Company Limited has signed up with Tamil Nadu for supply of 10 lakh tonnes of coal (one million tonne) to fuel up their power projects.

Following a memorandum of understanding inked here today, the Tamil Nadu Power Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) and Singareni Collieries have agreed for supply of 10 lakh tonnes of coal initially and negotiations are underway to increase this to three million tonnes per annum next financial year.

The memorandum was inked by B Kishan Rao, General Manager, Singareni and Sathia Seelan, Chief Engineer, Tangedco in the presence of N Sridhar, Chairman and Managing Director of Singareni Collieries.

While it supplies to small industries in Tamil Nadu, this is the first agreement Singareni has entered into with a State entity which has been procuring coal from abroad and subsidiaries of Coal India, Mahanadi Coalfields in Odisha and Eastern Coalfields in West Bengal.

Sethia Seelan, said, “We have entered into an agreement with Singareni for supply of one million tonne during the current financial year and are planning to take 3 million tonnes during next financial year.”

“Landing cost of Singareni coal is cheaper than that of imported coal and that of Coal India. Now we entered into an agreement to take higher grade of G-5 and G-7. In the coming years, we may consider other lower grades of coal too,” he said.

The Singareni management plans to supply coal from Manuguru and Bhupalapalli mines in the Kothagudem area of Telangana. The coal supplied will be utilised for 1400 MW Mettoor thermal power plant in Tamil Nadu.

The Singareni management has already entered into an agreement with Karnataka generation company this year for supply of 7 million tonnes of coal in addition to the existing deal of 5 million tonnes for the upcoming power generation units.

In addition to the new pact with Tamil Nadu, the Singareni Collieries will have to meet the coal requirement of new projects under construction by NTPC and Telangana Genco. Singareni plans to increase the output to up to 70 million tonnes by next fiscal meet the growing demand.

HBL