The production target for Coal India Ltd has been fixed at 507 million tonne for 2014-15 even as the state-owned firm is set to miss the current fiscal's target of 482 MT.
"For next year's production target is 507 million tonne and offtake is 520 million tonne... That is the double digit growth. The asking rate is close to 10," CIL Chairman and Managing Director S Narsing Rao told reporters here.
On whether CIL will be able to achieve its production target for 2013-14, Rao said: "This year there will be a shortfall." He refused to say how much will be the shortfall.
On how much is CIL planning to import, he said: "Many people are saying there is no coal. Today, except some coal- based thermal stations in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and one in Karnataka there is plenty of coal with all the power plants, let me say that.
"Southern peninsula, there is some shortage partly because of the logistic issues, partly whatever issues. There are some 5-6 stations in Southern India facing constraints, otherwise there is plenty of coal today. 19 point something is the coal stock available with the thermal power plants."
Earlier Coal India had said that it may miss the target of 482 MT, by about 12 MT for the 2013-14 financial year, ending March 31.
"As per estimates, we are likely to achieve an output of 470 MT for the fiscal as a number of factors have resulted in less output. We may miss the target by more than 10 MT," Rao had said.
He had attributed the projected production loss to a number of factors, including delays in securing clearances for CIL's projects, cyclone Phailin and problems related to evacuation.
CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production, contributed 452.5 MT of coal in 2012-13 as against the target of 464 MT.
