Coal India Ltd (CIL) today said that it has lowered its production target for the ongoing financial year to at least 440 million tonnes (mt) from the estimate of 452 mt in its annual plan.
“We have kept (production target) of at least 440 mt,” CIL Chairman, Mr N.C. Jha, told reporters on the sidelines of the International Conference of Safety in Mines Research Institutes.
The chairman cited various reasons like heavy rainfall, strike and delays in the grant of forestry and environmental clearances to coal projects for the downward revision in the production target.
The public sector firm also said that it was planning to mine between 556 mt and 615 mt of coal in the terminal year of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17).
“We are looking at two scenarios... One is business as usual... It would be 556 mt in the terminal year of 12th Plan. And the other scenario is 615 mt,” he said.
Earlier, CIL had asked the Government to scale down its production target for the 2011-12 financial year to 448 mt, fearing it will not be able to make up for the slippage in output in the first half of the fiscal.
The state-run company missed its April-September target by about 20 mt, recording an output of 176 mt, which it has blamed on inclement weather, including heavy rains in August-September that affected production in almost all its collieries.
CIL had lowered its production target to 440.20 mt from 460.50 mt last fiscal as well.
However, Coal India, which accounts for 80 per cent of domestic coal production in the country, missed its revised production target last fiscal too, recording an output of just 431 mt.