MCL falls short of targeted coal production

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), the flagship company of Coal India Limited (CIL), has fallen short of the targeted coal production in the first half (April-September) of the current financial year even though its output is higher than the corresponding fiscal.

According to a company source, the Talcher Coalfields under the command area of MCL has lagged behind last year's production while the Ib valley Coalfields has registered a positive growth and moved ahead of the targeted coal production in the first half of this fiscal.

MCL produced 43.81 million tonnes of coal in the April-September period of 2010-11 as against the target of 49.36 million tonnes. The achievement is 88.8 per cent of the target and the growth is 4.2 per cent over last year's performance. In the same period of the previous fiscal, the coal company had recorded an output of 42.03 million tonnes.

The Talcher Coalfields which accounts for more than 60 per cent of MCL's output has fallen short of the target due to chronic law and order problems. The Talcher Coalfields has clocked five per cent negative growth in the first half of 2010-11.

This coalfield recorded production of 22.99 million tonnes as against the target of 31.64 million tonnes while in last year the output was 24.31 million tonnes.

The worst performance in the Talcher Coalfields was witnessed in Hingula area which had a negative growth of ten per cent while the Bharatpur coal mines had a negative growth of nine per cent in the period under consideration. The land problem of Bharatpur is very critical while at Hingula, the daily law and order problem hampered its production, officials said.

This apart, Lingraj and Jagannath coal mines had a negative growth of 4.3 per cent and one per cent respectively.

On the other hand, the Ib Valley Coalfields consisting of Ib valley and Basundhara Coalfields produced 20.82 million tonnes as against the target of 17.72 million tonnes fixed for the April-September period of this fiscal. The coal output of the Ib Valley Coalfields stood at 17.72 million tonnes in the same period of the last fiscal.

MCL, however, maintained a growth of about 10.5 per cent in coal despatch and liquidated a stock of 6.5 million tonnes in the said period. It may be noted that the company still continues to be run by a caretaker chairman-cum Managing Director (CMD) as the full-time CMD is yet to be appointed though the selection was made three months back.