Coal India arm WCL to open 12 mining projects next fiscal

Coal India's subsidiary WCL will open 12 coal projects, having total production capacity of around 30 million tonne per annum, in the next fiscal, as the PSU aims at achieving 1 billion tonne output by 2020.
"In the fiscal 2016-17, WCL will open 12 coal mining projects," Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) Director (Technical) Binoy Kr Mishra said.
The projects have already received approval from the company's board, he said, adding that in the calendar year 2015 WCL opened 12 coal mines.
Western Coalfields is planning an output of 100 million tonnes in another five years.
Lauding WCL for resetting its production target from 60 million tonnes to 100 MT by 2020, Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal had earlier said that enhancing production will help provide electricity to deprived parts of the country.

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production.
The government has set a production target of 550 million tonnes for the PSU for the current fiscal. The company had missed the production target for 2014-15 by 3 per cent, recording an output of 494.23 million tonne.