Coal India's April coal despatch grows 6% to 45 mn tonnes

State-owned firm eyeing to achieve a production target of 1 billion tonnes by 2020

The overall despatch of coal by state-owned Coal India rose 6 per cent to 45.3 million tonnes last month.

Coal India (CIL), which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, had despatched 42.7 mt of the fossil fuel in April 2016, as per the latest government data.

The overall figure for Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) in April increased 15.7 per cent from a year ago to 5.4 mt.

The supply at par is at a time when demand of coal by the power sector has picked up on the back of economy doing well.

Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar had earlier said demand of coal by the power sector had picked up since December.

A series of measures have been taken by CIL to make more coal available through the special forward e-auction scheme.

Besides, steps like reduced reserve price, earnest money deposit to make e-auctions attractive and no performance incentives on higher grades of coal have also been taken up.

Coal India is eyeing 1 billion tonnes of production target by 2020.