MCL needs to produce 41 mt. coal in 3 months to reach target

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, needs to produce about 41 million tonnes (mt) of coal in the remaining three months of this fiscal to reach the targeted production of 104 mt for 2008-09 fixed by the Union coal ministry.

Till the end of December this year, the company has recorded a production of 63.4 mt in the current fiscal. Initially, the Union coal ministry had set MCL’s target at 99 mt, but later it was revised to 104 mt, the highest target for coal production among all subsidiaries of CIL, said an MCL official. In 2007-08 MCL clocked a production of 88 mt of coal.

Both the Ib valley and Talcher coalfields are running behind the targeted coal production. It is for the first time that MCL is facing such a setback in meeting its annual target at a time when CIL is pinning its hope on this company to raise the output for meeting the surging coal demand.

“MCL will have to produce four lakh tonnes of coal per day for recording 99 mt in 2008-09 and the production needs to be raised further to meet the revised target of 104 MT target. At present, the company is recording an average daily production of 3.70 lakh tonne”, the official added.

“There is a little chance of raising the output from the mines as all the mines are running to the fullest capacity. Moreover, the Kaniha open cast project could not be taken up in October as per the schedule”, he informed.

The company official attributed the lower coal production to the frequent bandhs at Talcher and agitations by private contractors.