The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Moves afoot in SCCL to step up production

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Wednesday, Feb 10, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Moves afoot in SCCL to step up production

D. Chandra Bhaskar Rao

Majority of thermal power units have coal stocks that may hardly last one week

SCCL introduces incentives to arrest absenteeism
CGMs and GMs told to monitor production closely

KOTHAGUDEM: Moves are afoot in the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) to step up coal production mainly from its underground mines and improve supplies to the thermal power stations thus enabling them to meet the demand. Generation of about 6000 mw of power from the various thermal units, including some private ones, is depending on the coal supplies from Singareni. A majority of the thermal units have coal stocks that might last hardly one week to ten days.

The SCCL, which targeted 50.60 million tonnes of production in the current financial year, had an out put of 42.28 million tonnes till date. The company operations, which remained strike free for many years, were affected by bandhs for two days in recent months.

It had lost a production of about seven lakh tonnes worth Rs 78 crores. Though the company authorities were confident of realising the target by the end of March, the achievement was only 99 per cent as on today.

As part of measures initiated to arrest absenteeism, the company had introduced incentives for the coal workers. The miners who could manage a minimum of 73 musters in the last three months of the financial year would get household articles worth Rs 2,000 as an additional incentive.

Those with 71 to 72 musters would get Rs 1,000 worth of household articles. Miners with 69 to 70 musters would qualify for articles costing Rs 750.

The incentives had their impact on the attendance. Mining operations are gaining momentum.

Company Chairman and Managing Director S. Narsinga Rao in one of the structured meetings with the representatives of the recognised union – AITUC, has emphasized the need for educating the workers and try to avoid loss of production for reasons not directly related to the company. He called for measures to focus attention on customer satisfaction and production. It is unfortunate that the company had to lose production because of unavoidable circumstances, he said.

Any failure to meet the demand for coal supplies would result in acute problems in generation of electricity causing cuts for the public as well as farmers, he cautioned. He wanted all the chief general managers, general managers to monitor the production closely till the end of the financial year.

Despite all out efforts, the production figures in some 36 underground mines in the company were not so encouraging.

They are falling short of the target of 15.26 million tones. The company authorities were gearing up to achieve a coal production of 11.5 million tonnes in the next 50 days.

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