After suffering some setbacks in getting environmental clearance for its proposed new mines and expansion of existing ones earlier this year, Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) has received a boost for its plans of increasing the coal production to 70 million tonnes in 2019-20 by getting the green nod for Kistaram open cast mine recently.
The coal company has achieved a production of 64.4 million tonnes in 2018-19 and getting the environmental clearance for Kistaram open cast mine, with a capacity of 2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), in Sathupalli mandal of Khammam district is expected to go a long way in its plans to jack up the production by nearly 6 million tonnes. The green nod to the proposal has come three years after public hearing conducted on it.
According to SCCL officials, a committee of experts in the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) that has gone through the proposal has recommended clearance to the mine earlier this month and has stipulating several conditions to keep impact of the mining activity under check on air, water and local people.
