History of Singareni

Singareni is a village located in Khammam district. Coal reserves in Telangana were first found at village Singareni. There is a railway line from village Singareni that meetsManuguru-Dornakal railway at Karepalli junction.

Singareni railway station was also called as Yellandu station that is one of the oldest railway stations in Telangana.

Actually colleries means a coal mine and all the infrastructure which is part of it, and singareni colleries turns out to mean a colleries which is located at singareni. So actually the name of this town was singareni in the erstwhile Hyderabad state and hence the SCCL company was named after it. However later after the Hyderabad state was merged in India the name of the town was changed to Yellandu. The Singareni Colleries railway station located in the town was completely neglected and left out without any development post merger of Hyderabad state in India.

History [edit]

In the year 1871, Dr. King of the Geological Survey of India discovered coal near the village of Yellandu in Khammam district and one of the important coal seams bore his name. The Hyderabad (Deccan) Company Limited incorporated in England acquired mining rights in 1886 to exploit coal found in Yellandu area. The present Company was incorporated on 23 December 1920 under the Hyderabad Companies Act as a public limited company with the name 'The Singareni Collieries Company Limited' (SCCL). It acquired all the assets and liabilities of the Hyderabad (Deccan) Co. Ltd. Best & Co., This was under the patronage of the Last Nawab of Hyderabad Sir Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan Bahadur .Acted as Secretaries and Selling Agents. The State of Hyderabad purchased majority shares of the Company in 1945. From 1945 to 1949, the Hyderabad Construction Co., Ltd., was acting as Managing Agent. In 1949 this function was entrusted to Industrial Trust Fund by the then Government of Hyderabad. The controlling interest of the Company devolved on the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 1956 pursuant to the reorganization of States. Thus, the SCCL became a Government Company under the Companies Act in 1956.

Large-scale expansion of SCCL was undertaken during initial Five-year plans. In 1960 the Govt. of India started its participation in the equity of the Company and also started extending loan assistance. Thus since March 1960 it has been jointly owned by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Govt. of India. In 1974 the Government of India transferred its share capital to the Coal Mines Authority Limited. The manner of extending financial assistance for expansion of SCCL by the Govt. of A.P., and the Govt. of India during V plan period was agreed upon in the Four party Agreement executed on 10 June 1974. Subsequently, the Govt. of India decided to control its equity directly in SCCL. Accordingly, agreement was concluded on 13 December 1977. The SCCL, the Government of A.P., the Government of India and Coal India Limited were parties to the agreement. These two agreements are popularly called quadripartite agreements.

For financial and other assistance during VI, VII, VIII, IX & X Plan periods, separate agreements were executed on 31 March 1985, 10 February 1989, 24 September 1994, 11 January 2002, 19 October 2004 and 11 June 2010 between the Government of India, the Government of Andhra Pradesh and SCCL. These agreements are called tripartite agreements.

The Company's accredited function is to explore and exploit the coal deposits in the Godavari valley coalfield, which is the only repository of coal in South India. Mining activities of SCCL are presently spread over four districts of Andhra Pradesh Viz. Adilabad, Karimnagar, Khammam and Warangal.

The studies of Geological Survey of India attribute as much as 22016 million tonnes of coal reserves in the Godavari valley coalfield. The inventory covers up to a depth of 1200 metres and it includes reserves proved, indicated as well as inferred.

The coal extracted by SCCL in the Godavari valley coalfield up to the year 2009-10 was about 929.11 million tonnes.