Coal India says output will decline from existing mines

State-owned CIL has projected a drop in output from the existing mines over the next five years even as it prepares to meet the government target of about 1 billion tonne coal production by March 2020.

"It is seen that there is drop in contribution from existing mines and completed projects to the tune of 25 million tonnes (MT)," says a detailed note on projected Coal India Ltd production.

However, the production is expected to grow from the ongoing and future projects of CIL.

CIL output from the existing mines is envisaged to drop to 165.56 million tonnes by 2020 from the projected level of 190.57 MT in the current fiscal, it said.

"An exercise has been carried out to prepare a roadmap for achieving a production level of one billion tonnes coal by the year 2019-20. All the subsidiary companies were requested to identify the potential projects to achieve the desired goal," said the CIL note.

With the projected 925.10 MT output by 2019-20, there is a need to grow production by 418.90 MT, from the 506.20 MT expected for 2014-15, the note said.

"239 projects have growth, and 185 number of units have reduction in production contribution. The net resultant growth is 418.90 MT," the note said.

It further said that the major issues for achieving the envisaged growth are grant of environment and forest clearances, land acquisition and coal evacuation.

CIL, which accounts for over 80% of the domestic coal production, missed its production target of 482 MT last fiscal and produced just 462 MT.