Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) in Telangana has received a green signal for expansion of its Rs 5,879.62 crore thermal power project in the state, according to official documents.
Union Environment Ministry has granted the clearance to the proposed project with some riders after taking into account the recommendation of a green panel.
The company's proposal is to expand the existing thermal power plant from 1,200 megawatts (MW) to 2,000 MW at Peddapalli village in Mancherial district.
SCCL has identified 127.31 hectares of land separately just adjacent to the existing plant. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 5,879.62 crore, the documents showed.
Currently, the SCCL's two thermal units with a capacity of 600 MW each in Mancherial district are generating power in full load. The setting up of a proposed third unit with 800 MW capacity is an effort towards making Telangana self-reliant in power generation.
SCCL is a coal producing company in Telangana and its work is spread across six districts. It has 29 underground and 18 open-cast mines in operation.
The company, owned by the Telangana government and the Centre on a 51:49 equity basis, has a workforce of over 56,000. It earned a record net profit of Rs 1,765 crore during 2018-19.
In 2018-19, the coal production went up to a record level of 64.41 million tonnes.
In September this year, the Telangana government announced a 28% share in the profit of SCCL to its employees for 2018-19.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced in the state legislative Assembly that each employee would get a bonus of Rs 1,00,899.
"Our government feels that the sweat that each and every SCCL worker shed in creating the national wealth, often coming out of the jaws of death, is no way inferior to the sacrifices of our own army personnel fighting at the borders," KCR said at the time.
PTI inputs