MCLs coal supply to power sector up 9%

Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) Thursday said its coal supplies to the power sector were up 9 per cent to 75.41 million tonne at the end of third quarter of current fiscal, as against 69.29 million tonne dispatched to power utilities during the same period last year.

MCL, a Coal India subsidiary, has supplied a record 104.6 million tonne to consumers in the first three quarters of the current fiscal, up 3.5 per cent, as against 101.1 million tonne dispatched during the same period in 2017-18, MCL said in a statement.

Despite bandhs and other obstructions in its coal mining operations, MCL has been successful to increase coal supplies to the consumers, particularly the power generators, it said.

With operational synergy with railways, MCL had dispatched 18,076 rakes of coal at the end of Q3 of the current fiscal, up by 4.4 per cent, against 17,311 rakes during the same period in the previous financial year.

MCL has already crossed 99 million tonnes coal production. However, due to bandhs in coalfields areas and regular obstructions by locals in the mining operations, the company is struggling to increase the coal production to achieve the targeted figures, it said.