Coal India falls short of output target as MCL, SECL falter

PSU firm post 7% deficit, achieves 554.13 mn tonnes versus 598.61 mn tonne target

Lacklustre performance by two of its largest subsidiaries -- Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) -- hindered Coal India Ltd (CIL) from achieving its targeted goals in production and offtake in 2016-17.

CIL was supposed to produce 598.61 million tonne (mt) in the last fiscal but actual output shrunk to 554.13 mt, an achievement of 93 per cent and a meagre growth of 2.9 per cent over FY16. The deficit in production was especially pronounced in MCL that was tipped to be the largest CIL subsidiary and, hence, was assigned the biggest target of 167 mt of coal production. MCL, however, disappointed with an output of 139.21 mt, thus proving to be a key drag on CIL’s production.

Production at some of the key operating mines in MCL’s jurisdiction was hit by workers’ protests. Law & order problems and pendency in settlement of some long-standing R&R (rehabilitation and resettlement) issues led to work outages, hurting coal production. Coal secretary Susheel Kumar made no bones of his displeasure during his visit to MCL last month, admitting that there were some serious problems especially the ones related to R&R at its operating mines. The coal secretary has even hinted that if the Odisha government does not do enough to improve the situation, the ministry can take a call on shifting coal production out of Odisha by assigning higher output target to some other CIL subsidiary.

SECL, too, registered a shortfall of about nine mt in coal production in last fiscal. Against the target of 149.67 mt, it produced 140 mt. Two other subsidiaries -- Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) -- logged 100 per cent of their stipulated production targets. Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) achieved 103 per cent of the target.

Coal despatch also could not meet the targeted figure of 598.61 mt set for 2016-17. Actual offtake was 543.16 mt, a growth of only 1.6 per cent.