Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd (MCL) under Coal India Ltd (CIL) has revised its coal output target for the current year downward on the basis of achievement made till date which hovers below the expectation.
Accordingly, the company has cut its annual target for the current year by 8 million tonnes to 96 million tonnes from 104 million tonnes fixed earlier.
MCL’s 104 MT coal output target for 2008-09, set by the Union coal ministry, was 16 MT higher than the achievement last year. MCL has its mines spread over the districts of Angul, Jarsuguda and Sundergarh.
It may be noted, had the company achieved the targeted production, it would have emerged as the number one company under CIL umbrella surpassing South eastern Coalfield Limited which is expected to produce 100MT this year..
However, the company could not open any new mines during the current fiscal. Besides, it also faced recurrent stirs at its coal mines at Talcher, affecting the output severely from the beginning of 2008-09.
A mega open cast mine Kaniha mine, having the annual capacity of ten million tonne of coal, could not be opened despite best efforts by the MCL management due to local unrest fueled by political parties in the backdrop of forthcoming elections in the state..
The proposed opening of the mine was put off thrice due to opposition from the land losing villagers. In this context, MCL had no choice but to stretch the capacity of current operations in existing mines to meet the output target amid frantic call from the power sector reeling under dwindling coal stock.
With hardly one month left for the year to be over, the company is to produce 20 MT in order to reach its initial target of 104 million tonne, which now appears to be an impossible task, as the best production record of the company is only 4 lakh tonnes per day from all its coal mines taken together. The company has produced 84 tonnes of coal by the end of Februaray, recording a growth of 7.88 per cent over the last year.
While Talcher coalfield produced 50.10 MT, Ib valley coalfield recorded production of 26.44 MT followed by Basudhara mines at Sundergarh district of 7.38 MT by the end of February. The sources informed that the off take from the company by the end of the last month was 82.31 MT against the target of 90 MT while last year dispatch was 75.72 MT.
All out efforts are on to produce at least 12 million tonne of coal in the current month, a daily production of 4 lakh tonne, in order to catch 96 MT revised target, sources added.
