MCL to fall short of coal production target this year too

OdishaSun Times Bureau
Angul, Mar 29 :

The Mahanadi Coalfield Limited(MCL), the PSU that covers coal mines in Odisha and happens to be the largest producer of coal in India, is likely to fall short of its annual target production by at least seven million tonne this year, sources in the MCL said.

This will be the third consecutive year that the Mini Navaratns PSU falls short of its annual production target.

A senior official of the company said, the MCL will be able to achieve at the most a production of 110 million tonne by the end of the current financial year 2013-14 as against its annual target of 117 MT.

Last year MCL produced 107 MT as against its target of 115 MT, he said.

The main reason behind the shortfall, the official said, was the delay in securing environmental clearance (EC) for some of the mines. Other factors include frequent disruption in production due to law and order problems particularly in the Talcher coalfield area.

Two of its mega mines – Bharatpur and Laxmanpur have been hit by the environment clearance issue.

Laxmanpur mine in the Ib valley area was closed down on March 13 following complications over its EC The mine was producing 60000 tons per day and MCL had applied to raise its annual capacity to 18.75 MT from the existing 15 MT. However, this proposal has been pending with the ministry of Environment and Forest for over a year.

The Bharatpur mines here which has the capacity to produce 60000 tonne of coal per day, has also been hit by environmental clearance issues.

However, MCL’s Bhubaneswari coal mine has managed to get the permission last month to raise its annual capacity to 25 million tons from the current level of 20 million tons, the senior official said.

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