Coal India may miss production target for FY14: CMD

Company had suffered a production loss of over 1 million tonne due to the shutdown of mining activities in Talcher Coalfields in Odisha

State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) today said it may miss the production target of 482 million tonnes (MT) for the 2013-14 fiscal by around 5 MT.

The country is facing acute fuel shortages.

"In the current fiscal there may be shortfall in the production of around 5 million tonnes," Coal India Chairman and Managing Director S Narsing Rao told PTI.

He said cyclone Phailin as well as law and order problems at its subsidiaries Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd and Central Coalfields Ltd would be among the reasons for the likely shortfall.

CIL had suffered a production loss of over 1 MT due to the shutdown of mining activities in Talcher Coalfields in Odisha.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal had earlier asked the state-owned company to ensure that the output target for FY 2014 is met.

Mining activities at Talcher Coalfields in Odisha, including coal transportation, came to a halt on November 29 following violence by a group of labourers protesting the arrest of some of their colleagues at Jagannath area in Angul district.

The mining activities in around 6 coal blocks (in Talcher Coalfields) of Coal India subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd were affected due to violence.

According to a CIL official, the PSU suffered production loss in October due to Cyclone Phailin, which affected the key coal producing states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production, contributed 452.5 MT of coal in 2012-13 as against the target of 464 MT.