Closed Singareni GDK UG mines reopened as OCP-5 in Ramagundam coal belt
K M Dayashankar
PEDDAPALLI: The GDK 2, 2A and 5 incline underground mines of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited, which were closed in September 2019, have been reopened as the Open Cast Project (OCP)-5 in Ramagundam division and started coal excavation in the Godavarikhani coal belt region on Saturday.
Singareni directors S Chandrashekhar, N Balaram and D Satyanarayana and others participated in the inauguration of the OCP-5 after performing traditional puja rituals to the huge machinery on Saturday. Speaking on the occasion, Director (operations) Chandrashekhar said that they were happy to reopen the closed GDK-5 mine as OCP-5 and start coal production clearing all hurdles.
The management had closed the underground mines following the increase in the cost of production and converted it into OCP-5. The GDK-5 mine was started in the year 1961 was providing employment to around 2,000 miners who worked in three shifts since its operation from 1970. The mine had about 60.96 million tonnes of coal reserves and the SCCL could extract only 20.14 million tonnes of coal even after almost five decades of operation. The management had decided to excavate coal from OCP-5 for a period of 14 years.
TGBKS president B Venkat Rao, secretary M Raji Reddy, senior leader Kengerla Mallaiah, CMOAI joint general secretary B Chandramouli, corporate general managers Nagabushan Reddy, Sathaiah, Guruvaiah, Ramesh Babu, Ravi Prasad, RG-1 general manager K Narayana, RG-2 general manager TV Rao, RG-3 general manager Manohar and others were also present.
