Coal India sets production target of 655 mt; 3-fold rise from last fiscal

The ministerial goal this year is just 5 mt over the aspirational target which the world's largest coal producer had set for itself in 2018-19

The coal ministry has set a production target of 655 million tonne (mt) for Coal India Ltd for the current fiscal year after the Maharatna company closed last fiscal year with 607 mt of production, registering a 7.23 per cent growth in actual production. 

In the last fiscal year, the ministry had set a production and despatch target of 610 mt for the company. Incidentally, the ministerial target this year is just 5 mt over the aspirational target which the world’s largest coal producer had set for itself in 2018-19. 

At the beginning of every fiscal year, based on the projected requirements from power plants and other sectors such as steel and cement, the coal ministry signs an agreement with Coal India, which is called Memorandum of Understand (MoU) target. This becomes the ministerial target for the company. 

Company sources said that considering the production jump it had registered last year, the ministry wants Coal India to sustain this growth momentum and the target this year is in line with the growth chart that the company has mapped to raise production.

Although its largest subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) continues to face production and expansion problems involving the labourers, villagers and clearance issues, which might impact production, its other subsidiaries, last year, scaled to new highs. 

	Actual production	Actual despatch
2014-15	494	490
2015-16	539	535
2016-17	554	543
2017-18	567	581
2018-19	607	608

In the last fiscal year, Northern Coalfields became the company’s third subsidiary to breach the 100 mt production mark after South-Eastern Coalfields (SECL) and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL). On the other hand, SECL became Coal India’s first subsidiary to cruise over 150 mt production mark while Eastern Coalfields and Western Coalfields have become 50 mt companies each.

According to company officials, the production growth last year is almost three-fold increase compared to 2017-18 fiscal year’s output growth of 2.33 per cent. 

Moreover, officials believe that the commissioning of three crucial railway tracks this year will increase the company’s despatch capability and hence debottleneck pitheads in mines. Once fully operational, these railway tracks can increase the company’s ability to despatch coal by 100 mt.

The first is the 53 km long Jharsuguda-Sardega railway line in the MCL catchment area, where partial operations have started since April last year. The second is the 44.37 km long Tori-Shivpur line in Jharkhand where loading of rakes has also partially started. The third and a crucial connector - passing via Chhattisgarh - the East Corridor and East-West Corridor which is expected to commence partial operations from June this year.

Moreover, with an increased focus on mechanisation, Coal India had been able to achieve 3.14 mt of coal production in a single day last month while in that month itself, Coal India produced 79.19 mt of coal. Incidentally, this is the highest production ever recorded in a single month since Coal India’s inception and company officials are seemingly upbeat over the achievement which they plan to stick to this year also.

While previously, it had taken Coal India seven years to increase its production level by 100 mt a year to breach 500 mt during 2016-17, the company was able to reach 600 mt levels of output in three-year’ time.