Coal India production hit due to Cyclone

Company has suffered a production loss of about 1.2 MTin the last three days

State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) has suffered a production loss of about 1.2 million tonne (MT) in the past three days on account of Cyclone Phailin which has affected the key coal producing states of Odhisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

"Coal India has suffered a production loss of about 1.2 million tonne (MT) in the last three days," said a CIL official, adding that the most of the loss has been reported yesterday and today.

The loss comes amid the firm drawing flak from all quarters for missing its production target.

Coal India's output had also suffered a hit in production in November last year due to cyclone Neelam. "November has been damp, thanks to first 8-9 days Neelam cyclone (which) had a very devastated effect," CIL CMD S Narsing Rao had said.

CIL, which accounts for over 81% of the domestic production, missed its production target of 464 million tonnes in the last fiscal and produced 452 MT of coal.

The Coal Ministry has set a production target of 482 MT and offtake of 492 MT for CIL for the ongoing fiscal.