Coal India to boost production; aims to achieve FY23 output target

State-owned Coal India on Friday said it will further boost production in the coming months and is optimistic that the company will achieve the output target set for the current financial year.

Coal India (CIL), which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal production, is eyeing an output of 700 million tonnes (MT) for FY'23.

"We began FY'23 requiring 78 MT jump in volume terms to touch the target of 700 MT. As of November 24, the company has already achieved an increase of nearly 58 MTs.

"In the ensuing months we aim to sustain the tempo and further scale up the production and feel upbeat about achieving the target," the PSU said in a statement.

Following the end of the monsoon season, most of the mines have been dewatered. The festive season is also over. There will be greater availability of machines and manpower leading to better production and productivity in the coming months, the company said.

The PSU produced 400 million tonnes (MT) of coal as on November 24 of the current financial year, registering a growth of 17 per cent.

As of November 24, 2021 CIL had produced 342 MT of coal.

The PSU said that its increased production brought down the asking annual growth rate to 6.9 per cent from 12.4 per cent at the start of the year.

Paving the path to increased production in the remaining months of the current financial year, the company's overburden removal (OBR) has been consistently logging an average of 5.4 million cubic metres (MCuM) per day during November till now.

OBR is an important performance parameter that exposes the coal seam which simplifies the future extraction of coal.