State-run CIL's Lalmatia opencast mine in Jharkhand, in which 18 miners lost their lives last month, has resumed partial production, an official said.
"Yesterday we produced around 17,000 tonnes of coal from Lalmatia opencast mine. Today, the production may go up higher. We are hopeful that tomorrow the output will improve further," an official with Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) said.
Coal India arm ECL runs the Lalmatia opencast mine in Godda district of Jharkhand. Eighteen bodies were recovered from the accident site, according to sources, while around five bodies are still believed to be trapped inside.
"Rescue operation is not feasible at this moment due to safety reasons," the official said, adding that the operations were called off on January 7.
Lalmatia opencast mine, which has a capacity of 17 million tonnes per annum, may produce around 1.4 million tonnes of the fossil fuel in the ongoing month, the official had earlier said.
In December, the mine had produced 2 million tonnes of fossil fuel, he added.
"We expect that the mine may produce 1.4 million tonnes of coal in January if the production from the mine either starts from tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," the official had earlier said.
Coal India (CIL), which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production, is eyeing 1 billion tonnes output by 2020.
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