Kolkata, Oct 18 (IANS) State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) has missed its half-yearly (H1) production target by a whisker, as it produced 191.57 million tonnes of coal during the first six months of this fiscal against the target of 198.74 million tonnes, a top official said Thursday.
The world’s largest coal miner, however, was confident of meeting the production target of 464 million tonnes in the next half of this financial year.
“We are working hard for that and will surely meet that target,” CIL Chairman S. Narsing Rao told IANS.
“We have achieved about 96 percent of our production target for the first half of the current fiscal,” Rao said.
According to the CIL chairman, there were three reasons for the marginal output shortfall — heavy rainfall from July-September this year, production irregularities at Mahanadi Coalfields Limited for a certain period and shutdowns in Jharkhand.
On a recent directive of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) asking CIL to sign fuel supply agreement (FSA) with power firms by November-end, he said: “More or less it will be achieved.”
The PMO in its directive asked the coal major to sign by the end of November the FSA with power utilities, which have long- and medium-term sale arrangements with states and power trading companies.
The Coal India board approved the modified FSA on the cost-plus basis Sep 18. The cost-plus model provides imported coal at its actual cost.
