India’s SCCL to get new coal blocks

Government miner Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) has adopted a twin-pronged expansion strategy to take its coalmining operations beyond its present southern Indian geographical boundaries and at the same time add new business verticals of ‘manufactured sand’ production and solar energy. The Ministry of Coal has assured the southern India headquartered mining company that the federal government will grant new coal blocks to the miner under the preferential allotment rule for government companies. These new coal blocks will be in coal-bearing provinces outside southern India, the traditional operational hinterland of SCCL, and enable the company to ramp up coal production to levels of 100-million tons a year over the next few years, government officials have said.