Coal India annual production target kept at 630 mn tonnes in FY19: Centre

The government on Friday said that the annual production target of state-owned CIL has been kept at 630 million tonnes (MT) for the upcoming financial year.

"As per Annual Plan proposal for 2018-19, the production target of CIL (Coal India) has been kept at 630 MT (million tonnes) with five per cent growth over the target of 2017-18," Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.

Against the target of 408.6 MT, CIL produced 385.6 MT of coal till January 1 in the ongoing financial year, the minister said.

In the Annual Plan of CIL for 2017-18, the production target has been pegged at 600 million tonnes.

From the production level of 554 million tonnes in 2016- 17, the PSU has envisaged to enhance its coal output to one billion tonnes by FY'20.

CIL has identified mines with a production capacity of 908 million tonnes so far.

Considering the demand for coal from various segments, while finalising the Annual Plan of 2017-18, CIL was given the offtake target of 600 MT by the coal ministry.

"In the period April 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017, offtake of 421.41 MT(provisionally) has been achieved," the minister said.

In a bid to achieve the annual target, CIL is required to increase its daily production to more than two MT during the remaining day of the ongoing financial year.