The first Open Cast Project (OCP)-1 of the Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) in Ramagundam coal belt region is making strides in coal production since its inception by surpassing the targeted coal production every year for over two decades.
The OCP-1 has been operational since 1974 when it was launched by the then Chief Minister Jalagam Vengal Rao. It has become one of the major contributors of coal to Singareni by producing over five million tonnes of coal per annum. Out of the 62.01 million tonnes coal produced by all the mines of Singareni, the OCP-1 alone contributed 5 million tonnes.
New technology
This is the first OCP to use the dragline and shovel dumper technology for the removal over-burden (OB) earth. Then Chief Minister N. T. Rama Rao launched the dragline technology in 1987.
The OCP-1 had produced a record 52.94 lakh tonnes of coal in the year 2013-14 when the target was only 30 lakh tonnes. During the financial year 2017-18, the management fixed the target of producing 5 million tonnes and the OCP achieved 5.3 million tonnes.
New reserves
Since its inception, the OCP-1 has extracted 57.9 million tonnes of coal from the available reserves of 61 million tonnes.
Currently the coal is being extracted from OCP-1 project expansion Phase-I which has coal reserves of 61.5 million tonnes. The Singareni management has proposed the OCP-1 project expansion Phase-II where the coal reserves are around 59.21 million tonnes.
Rich load
The OCP has won accolades for its environmental protection measures by taking up extensive afforestation and also according priority to the safety of all the miners at the workplace.
It had won first prizes during the Safety Week celebrations in the year 2017-18 and 2007-08 and second prizes in the year 2004-5, 2005-06 and 2015-16. It secured environmental award in the year 2014.
