CIL aims 492 mn tonne coal output in FY14

Coal India Limited (CIL), the single largest coal miner in the country, has set a target to produce 492 million tonne (mt) of coal and dispatch 500 million tonne in the current fiscal.

This was announced by the CIL chairman S.Narsing Rao at a news conference at Burla , the head quarter for Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL).

In 2012-13, CIL produced 452.5 mt against the target of 464 mt.

"CIL will put thrust on increasing the coal production this year in order to slash the coal import which stood at 30 million tonne by the power sector," he said, adding that MCL and South Eastern Coalfield Limited (SECL) together shared 50 per cent coal output of CIL.

The CIL chief said that there was huge potential for Basudhara area of Sundergarh coal field which is to be tapped in the coming years.

"The evacuation of coal from Basudhra is a major challenge and this will be overcome once the rail link between Jharsuguda and Sardega is completed by 2015,"he said.

He said, Coal India need not participate in auction process of coal blocks as being a government company it will get automatically.

He expressed satisfaction over the MCL performances in both coal output and off take despite multiple adversaries.Rao, who was in the state last week, had an initial programme to visit all coalfields of MCL including Talcher which produced more than 60 MT coal in last fiscal but later cancelled the tour because of state-wide strike called by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) .

He paid his maiden visit to IB valley and Basudhra area besides holding a review meeting with the all the general managers and directors of MCL.

The chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of MCL, A.N.Sahay, said MCL has set a high target of 124 million tonne of coal production in the current financial year, up from 108 MT in the last year.