Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL), the flagship company under the umbrella of Coal India Limited (CIL), has posted the highest growth in production and dispatch of coal among the eight CIL subsidiaries during 2009-10.
With this, MCL has maintained its growth track for the fourth consecutive year. While the coal production of CIL, as a whole, grew by 27.5 million tonne, MCL’s contribution to it was highest at 7.7 MT. In percentage terms, MCL registered a growth of 8.04 per cent as against the CIL’s annual growth of 6.8 per cent in the last fiscal.
CIL’s total coal production stood at 431.2 MT, out of which MCL alone produced 104 MT against a target of 110mt. CIL‘s annual target was pegged at 435 MT for 2009-10.
Had MCL produced its targeted output of 110 MT, it would have occupied the number slot among the subsidiaries under CIL fold surpassing South Eastern Coal Field which produced 108 million tonne in the last year. MCL now continues to be the second largest coal producer and second highest profit earner among the CIL companies.
Out of MCL’s 104.08 MT coal output, Talcher coalfield produced 59.73 MT while the rest 44.34 MT came from Ib valley and Basubdhara coalfields. The growth of production at Talcher was lower at 3.84 per cent while the IB valley area posted a growth of 14.27 per cent.
The chairman-cum managing director of the company Sriramji Upadhaya gave credit to his team and workers for surpassing the 100 MT mark in output. He also thanked the state authorities and people for the success.
Upadhaya said, dispatch problem and frequent law and order issues in the coalfield area were the main causes for the company not being able to achieve the targeted production. He expressed optimism that in the current year, the company will reach its target of 123 MT output with the opening of mega new mines at Kaniha and expansion of other mines at Talcher and IB valley. He said, the profit before tax of the company stood at Rs 3010 crore in the last fiscal.