Coal India eyes 2-digit production growth

Coal India is targeting a sharp jump in coal production with a double-digit growth in the second half of the current fiscal. "There is a whopping growth of 37 per cent in Over Burden Removal (OBR) in the April-September 2015 period. This will pave the way for ramping up the coal production," a top Coal India official told PTI.

OBR is key to production for open-cast mines. Around 93 per cent of the company's total coal production comes from open-cast mines.

The company said OBR during first half of the fiscal (April-September 2015) was 509.78 million cubic metres or 37 per cent higher over the corresponding period last fiscal. Meanwhile, Coal India achieved 8.9 per cent growth in coal production for H1 (April-September 15') by extracting 229.54 million tonnes of coal and met 97 per cent of its target.

In contrast, growth in the corresponding H1 of last year was 5.1 per cent with 210.7 million tonne production. However, the production growth had slipped compared with the first five months' (April-August 2015) growth rate of 9.4 per cent.