Coal India aims double digit production growth in H2 of FY16

Kolkata: Coal India is targeting a sharp jump in coal production with double digit growth in the second half of the current fiscal.

"There is a whopping growth of 37 per cent in Over Burden Removal (OBR) in the April-September 2015 period. This will pave way for ramping up the coal production," a top Coal India official told PTI.

OBR is key to production for open-cast mines. Around 93 per cent of the company's total coal production comes from open-cast mines.

The company said OBR during first half of the fiscal (April-September 2015) was 509.78 million cubic meters or 37 per cent higher over the corresponding period last fiscal.

Meanwhile, Coal India had achieved 8.9 per cent growth in coal production for H1 (April-September 15') by extracting 229.54 million tonnes of coal and met 97 per cent of its target.

In contrast, growth in the corresponding H1 of last year was 5.1 per cent with 210.7 million tonne production.

However, the production growth had slipped compared to first five months' (April-August 2015) growth rate of 9.4 per cent.

Offtake during the period under review had registered a 9.3 per cent jump to 251.3 million tonne, which is 97 per cent of its target.

This year coal inventory at power utilities of the country achieved a new high.

As of September 30, 2015, coal stock at power houses across the country was 26 million tonnes, which is 22 days' stock.

Coal stock was only 8.58 million tonnes or 5 days' stock, as on September 30, 2014.

The reasons seen for the same are higher production from Coal India, diversion of e-auction coal to power sector and tepid demand from utilities.