Miners strike hits coal production

HYDERABAD: Except in Adilabad and Karimnagar, the coal mines of Singareni Collieries at Manuguru, Kothagudem and Sathupalli are working at about a fourth of their capacity. About 35,000 tonnes of coal was produced as against the normal daily output of 1.35 lakh tonnes.The miners' strike, as part of the Sakalajanula Samme for Telangana cause, entered the fourth day and the coal production came to a grinding halt at Singareni units in Karimnagar and Adilabad districts.As compared to last three days, there is improvement in power generation at the NTPC thermal power station in Ramagundam. The NTPC units will reach the peak power generation of 2600 MW between 6 pm and 10 pm from Friday due to import of coal from other states. Yet, there will be an outage of about 700 MW during day time. According to official sources, the SCCL has supplied 20,000 tonnes of coal to NTPC's Ramagundam unit. Arrangements have also been made for coal supplies from Mahanadi Coal Fields in Odisha and other states. At present, about 1,900 MW of power is being generated with the available coal stocks.Of the 35,000 tonnes of coal produced at Manuguru, Kothagudem and Sathupalli, about 20,000 tonnes is supplied to NTPC, 8,000 tonnes to KTPS at Palvancha and 7,000 tonnes to private customers who include captive power units. In Karimnagar and Adilabad, only 15 percent staff who include essential and statutory workers, attended the duties, SCCL general manager (corporate communications) Chandrasekhar said.Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy had discussed with chief secretary S V Prasad and principal secretary (energy) Dinesh Kumar at his camp office people's problems arising from the samme.