Hyderabad: Telangana IT and Industries Minister D Sridhar Babu on Thursday, October 15, rejected Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao’s (KTR) allegations about coal supply shortage at Singareni collieries, blaming the previous government for the gap at the Yadadri thermal power plant.
Addressing a press conference, he said the fuel supply agreement to give Yadadri 14 million tonne of G-9 grade coal a year was signed during the BRS rule. It was based on the expectation that Singareni would open new mines.
Singareni produces G-9 coal from only nine mines, he said. Over the past decade, it supplied an average of about 4 million tonne a year of that grade to plants with supply agreements.
The new mines never came up because Singareni did not take part in the Centre’s coal block auctions, the minister said. As a result, it lost the Koyagudem-3 and Sattupalli-3 blocks and nearly 10 million tonne of quality coal a year.
This year, the company has supplied over 25 million tonne of coal to power plants in Telangana and other states, he said. Only 1.2 million tonne of this was G-9 grade and 0.52 million tonnes of that went to Telangana GENCO plants.
According to Sridhar Babu, the Congress government started production at the Naini mine in Odisha within two years of getting approvals. It also secured clearances for the Tadicherla Block-2 and won the Manuguru PK OC-2 Dip Side block in an auction, which would raise output, he said.
On the alleged missing coal, he said Singareni has a technology-based system that tracks coal at every stage, from production and loading to transport, weighing and dispatch.
“If you have evidence, bring it out. Otherwise, stop tarnishing the integrity of Singareni’s workers and officials,” he said.
Defending the site visit certificate, the minister said it was meant to ensure contractors fully understood the work before bidding, so that projects ran smoothly after tenders were awarded. It was not for anyone’s personal benefit, he said.
The government is also expanding Singareni into critical minerals, thermal power and solar energy, Sridhar Babu added.
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