CIL lowers production target to 440 mn tonnes

Coal India (CIL) today said it has lowered its production target for the ongoing financial year to at least 440 million tonnes from the estimate of 452 million tonnes in its annual plan.

"We have kept (production target) of at least 440 million tonnes," CIL chairman N C Jha told reporters on the sidelines of the International Conference of Safety in Mines Research Institutes.

The chairman cited various reasons like heavy rainfall, strike and delays in the grant of forestry and environmental clearances to coal projects for the downward revision in the production target.

The public sector firm also said it was planning to mine between 556 and 615 million tonnes of coal in the terminal year of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17).

Earlier, CIL had asked the government to scale down its production target for the 2011-12 financial year to 448 million tonnes (MT), fearing it will not be able to make up for the slippage in output in the first half of the fiscal.

The state-run company missed its April-September target by about 20 million tonnes, recording an output of 176 million tonnes against the target of 196 million tonnes, which it has blamed on inclement weather, including heavy rains in August-September that affected production in almost all its collieries.

CIL had lowered its production target to 440.20 million tonnes from 460.50 million tonnes last fiscal as well.

However, CIL, which accounts for 80% of domestic coal production in the country, missed its revised production target last fiscal too, recording an output of just 431 million tonnes.