Heavy rains lashed the coal mining region of the State for the second consecutive day hampering coal production in open cast mines of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL).
The daily coal output from all the coal mining areas of the SCCL reportedly fell by about 70,000 tonnes from the average daily production of 2 lakh tonnes, SCCL sources said.
The State-owned coal mining giant has 18 opencast projects and 24 underground coal mines spread across the State’s coal belt region.
Incessant rains led to stagnation of water in the open cast mines in Kothagudem, Manuguru and Yellandu areas, severely affecting overburden removal work for the second day in a row, sources added.
The operation of shovels and other heavy machinery has come to a virtual halt in almost all the OCPs due to slushy conditions in the surface mining areas.
High-capacity motors were deployed at the Gouthamkhani Opencast Project (OCP) in Kothagudem and other OCPs elsewhere in the coal mining region to pump out the stagnant rainwater.
Sources said that coal production to the tune of around 10,000 tonnes and removal of about 20,000 cubic meters of overburden was affected in the open cast mines in Yellandu area in the last 24 hours.
To make up for the loss of production due to incessant rains, the SCCL authorities have drawn up an action plan to step up coal production in the underground mines during the peak monsoon season ahead.
