Hyderabad, August 7: As demand for coal declined sharply due to the coronavirus crisis, coal dispatches from the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) dropped marginally more than 50 percent in the last four months of the current financial year (2020-2021).
Due to the shutdown of several of its coal consuming units, including cement factories, the SCCL ‘s coal dispatches were hit and power generation at various coal-based power plants in southern India was scaled down due to the coronavirus crisis. During this period ending July 31 in the current fiscal period, the SCCL recorded significantly low coal dispatches at 113.75 lakh tonnes, over 219.59 lakh tons of coal dispatches registered in the corresponding period last year.
The coal production also fall more than 45 percent in the Kothagudem coal mining region of the SCCL mainly due to the coronavirus crisis and to some degree due to the 72-hour strike by various Central Trade Unions last month against the decision of the Center to auction coal blocks for commercial mining.
Because of the suspension of train services and the closure of shopping malls, cinema theaters and other business establishments, the slump in demand for electricity has led to a sharp fall in demand for coal.
The Kothagudem Region comprising two underground coal mines and OCPs achieved 22.5 lakh tons of coal output over the past four months against the set target of 46 lakh tons. The coronavirus scare continues to cast its shadow over the workforce attendance in the Kothagudem region’s underground coal mines, which has recorded a couple of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.
The SCCL officials, however, are confident the development will be back on track once the coal-consuming units resume their full operations in the next few weeks.
