Heavy rains hamper coal production

Average daily coal output falls by almost 50%

Though heavy rains that battered the coal belt region last week abated since Saturday, the recent spells of heavy downpour impeded coal production and overburden removal in almost all the opencast projects (OCPs) of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) spread across six districts including Bhadradri-Kothagudem district. The State-owned SCCL reportedly suffered a huge production loss to an extent of more than five lakh tonnes in all the 21 OCPs together in the company’s 11 areas due to heavy rainfall in the coal belt region last week, sources said. The average daily coal output fell by almost 50% from 1.90 lakh tonnes to little over 90,000 tonnes in the past five days, sources added.