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Singareni Collieries turns around -- `Will become debt-free by 2004'

Our Bureau

HYDERABAD, Aug. 24

SINGARENI Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) has turned the corner and has achieved a profit of Rs 275 crore on a turnover of Rs 2,900 crore during the 2001-2002 fiscal, thereby bringing down the accumulated losses to Rs 290 crore.

The Chief Minister, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, while complimenting the state-owned enterprise for its dramatic turnaround during the last fiscal and describing it as a model case for a public sector company, said that the company was expected to become a z ero-debt company by 2004.

Subject to this development, Mr Naidu said that the Central Government would be requested to write off pending dues so that the company could become more competitive.

It may be recalled that the SCCL, in which the State Government owns 49 per cent equity and the Central Government 51 per cent stake, had a Rs 663 crore loan burden and had become a sick company due to strikes necessitating the Bureau for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction intervention. The company had a fresh lease of life following the Central Government announcement of an interest-free regime and a 10-year moratorium on loan repayment.

The Chief Minister commissioned the collieries' corporate office `Singareni Bhavan' here on Thursday. The facility will also locate the Andhra Pradesh Central Power Distribution Company, part of AP Transco, and the AP State Electricity Regulatory Commiss ion.

The company, which recorded a total turnover of Rs 2,900 crore, supplies coal to the power sector, cement industry and other industries in the South. With a customer base of over 3,000, Singareni Collieries has implemented a company-wide MIS (Management Information System), which is to be co-hosted by AP Technology Services.

The Chairman and Managing Director of SCCL, Mr A.P.V.N. Sarma, said that the company had made rapid strides in the last three years and if it continues in the same vein it would be well positioned to take on the competitive business environment.

The Union Minister for Urban Development, Mr Banadru Dattatreya, said that a Rs 500-crore plan to provide housing facilities to Singareni Collieries is proposed under `Hudco Niwas' scheme which will ensure that every SCCL employee will have a house. A de tailed plan to this affect is to be drawn up by the company's management in league with Hudco.

SCCL had started mining operations in 1889 as Hyderabad Deccan Company in Singareni village (Yellandu) in Khammam district. This later came under the State control (Nizams) in 1945 after incorporation as a Government company in 1921.

Since 1956, SCCL has been functioning as a State-owned enterprise with operations spanning four Telangana districts. It has 11 opencast and five underground mines producing 31 million tonnes annually. The company has a workforce of 1.05 lakhs.