MCL scales down coal production target to 145 MT

Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), the largest coal company in India, is unlikely to achieve its targeted annual production of coal due to multiple problems in its major coalfield at Talcher.

TALCHER:Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), the largest coal company in India, is unlikely to achieve its targeted annual production of coal due to multiple problems in its major coalfield at Talcher.
According to MCL source, as against the annual target of 167 million tonne (MT), the company as on February 9 has produced 116.9 MT, 48 MT short of target. In the remaining 50 days, the asking rate is above 10 lakh tonne per day, which is impossible to meet. Sources say that at present, the daily production attains a maximum level of 5.6 lakh tonne. The MCL is learnt to have revised its target to 145 MT.

MCL record says Talcher coalfield has produced 66.97 MT  while Ib Valley field produced 49.93 MT coal till February 9 last. Talcher, which accounts for 60 per cent production of the company, has fallen short of its target. Its growth is calculated at minus 1.4 per cent, while Ib Valley registered a growth of 6.37 per cent. Both the coalfields, however, have fallen behind their target till date.
There are eight mega open cast coalmines at Talcher coalfield of MCL. The MCL authorities hoped to achieve a target of 100 MT in the current financial year, but it has been able to produce about 67 million tonne till  now. It seems to be impossible to achieve the target by the end of the current financial  year, MCL sources say.

Among the coalmines which recorded negative growth are Jaganath, Bhubaneswari Bharatpur, Ananta and Kaniha.  Coalmines such as Hingula, Balaram and Lingaraj have been doing well till now though they have fallen behind their targets. The authorities, however, do not assess the growth of Bhubaneswari as negative as it had slowed down production, but  they are hopeful of achieving the target of 25 MT, one of the highest in India.  As the production of coalfields does not pick up, consumers like JSPL and JITPL have been facing problems due to shortage of coal in their power plants.
 Under the circumstances, the MCL authorities are  understood to have revised their target to 145 MT instead of 167 MT.  MCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Anil Kumar Jha attributed the setback in production in Talcher to land problems, law and order situation and of lack forest clearance on time. He said his team is doing its best to increase MCL production.