Hyderabad: Encouraging the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) officials to diversify into other areas of mining, Telangana deputy chief minister Bhatti Vikramarka has advised them to focus on extracting lithium, as sooner or later fossil fuels like petroleum, diesel and coal were going to become redundant. He predicted that the future energy was going to be dictated by lithium-ion batteries.
During a review meeting on the plans and development of SCCL held at Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana State Secretariat on Saturday, Bhatti also suggested SCCL authorities consider employing a consultancy, so that the company could go global in the mining of metals and non-metals.
SCCL officials apprised Bhatti of green energy initiatives like the pumped storage hydropower and floating solar power plants which the company has been planning to establish in the near future, for which the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) were being prepared presently.
Bhatti Vikramarka asked the SCCL officials when the company was going to start mining coal at the Naini coal block in Odisha which has been allotted to it. He told the officials that job creation could be done only by protecting the company’s identity, while also focusing on wealth creation and diversification.
Energy secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania, deputy chief minister’s special secretary Krishna Bhaskar, SCCL CMD Balaram Naik and others attended the meeting.
