CIL arm Mahanadi Coalfields further raises daily coal despatch

State-owned CIL arm Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd on Wednesday said it has further increased its business operations, with an average daily coal despatch crossing 5.1 lakh tonne in the current month, as it also keeps a close watch on the stock situation of dry fuel in thermal power plants in Odisha.

The statement comes at a time when various plants in the country are facing coal shortages.

"In a bid to support state-owned CIL's efforts to successfully meet the increased demand of indigenous dry fuel, Odisha-based miniratna CPSE Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) has further augmented its business operations with an average daily coal despatch crossing 5.1 lakh tonne during the current month," the Coal India arm said in a statement.

With continuous monitoring and an out-of-the-box approach to augment coal production and despatch operations, the average despatch of fossil fuel from MCL has grown to 5.12 lakh tonnes per day during the current month.

The company had despatched 5.44 lakh tonnes on Tuesday.

Reviewing business operations along with the functional directors, MCL Chairman and Managing Director P K Sinha exhorted the area general managers and the heads of departments to optimise productivity in wake of higher demand for coal.

"Even the smallest bottleneck in the business operations has to be addressed to optimise production and despatch," Sinha said while appreciating the coal-rail synergy and the team effort in MCL.

On this festive season ahead, Sinha said, "Ensuring that every household is illuminated during the ensuing festivals will be the true gift from Coal India to a billion people."

The company's functional directors are continuously reaching out to the project teams to ascertain the bottlenecks in mining and supply operations, and augment coal despatch to the consumers.

The approach of top management to reach out to field teams and provide on-the-spot administrative support has further enhanced the performance of the company.

MCL has produced more than 76 million tonnes of coal while supplying about 87 million tonnes to the consumers, recording a growth of 11.2 per cent in coal production and 20 per cent in coal despatch during the current financial year.

Besides, the company has registered a growth of about 21 per cent in overburden (OB) removal at 98 million cubic metres.

Currently, the company has a coal stock of 13.59 million tonnes.

The power plants in Odisha, with an installed capacity of 9,190 megawatts, have sufficient coal stocks with MCL regularly supplementing the consumption.