Govt likely to set 550 million tonne production target for Coal India

The government is likely to set production target of 550 million tonnes (MT) for Coal India for next financial year even as it is likely to miss the goal for the current fiscal.

"For the next fiscal, it is likely that the government may set a production target of 550 MT," a source said.

The production target for the next fiscal is almost final, however, Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the government and Coal India (CIL) on the same is likely to be signed shortly.

The state-owned miner may miss its output target of 507 MT by over 10 MT in the ongoing fiscal on account of various delays at the level of states in operationalising mines.

The target shortfall comes against the backdrop of the government's ambitious plan to augment coal production to one billion tonnes by 2020.

Coal India's output for the April-February period was 436.96 MT against the target of 450.14 MT.

Coal India Chairman and Managing Director S Bhattacharya had earlier said that ramping-up output and improving profitability would be among top priorities for the company, although he admitted that production target of 925 MT by 2019-20 is a huge challenge.

Coal India, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic production of the fuel, had to achieve production of 507 MT in the ongoing fiscal.

The company had missed its output target of 482 MT in the last fiscal by producing 462 MT of coal.