Coal mines under Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL) in Odisha have produced 144.15 million tonnes of coal as against the annual target of 151.5 Million tonne (MT) in the outgoing financial year of 2018-19.
Official sources said the coal production of the company in the previous year was 143 MT .
The company had produced 18 million tonne of coal in a single month in March last year,as against the daily normal production of 3.95 lakh tonne of coal ,the average daily production in March was at 5.83 lakh tonne.
Meanwhile, the coal major Coal India Limited (CIL) has produced a whopping 606 million tonne of coal out of which MCL share was 144 Mt ,more than 23 per cent.
While South Eastern Coalfield limited emerged as the number one, MCL stood second among eight CIL subsidiary companies ,the sources said.
Out of total 144 MT of MCL, Talcher coalfield recorded 82 MT while IB valley coalfield recorded 62 Mt of coal in last financial year. The worrying fact is that Talcher has recorded negative growth in previous year and in the target production while IB valley posted positive growth in both the sectors.
Out of the target of 92.89 million tonne for Talcher it produced 82 MT of coal and the IB valley coalfield has produced 62 Mt of coal.
According to production record Jagannath area of Talcher emerged as the number one area having highest production of 41.1 MT.
Bhubaneswari coal project in the area remained the highest coal producing mine in the company and perhaps third highest in India. It produced 28 MT as against the target of 27.75 MT.The mine has been outsourced to Bhubaneswari coalmining limited (BCML),a subsidiary of Aditya Birla group.
One of the worst performers is Kaniha area having production of about 10.6 million tonne.It registered a negative growth of minus 29 per cent in both over previous year production and the target.
Company sources blamed frequent disruption and bandhs at Talcher and non availability of land as the main cause of shortfall in production for which it could not meet the target. This year target has been fixed at 168 MT. (UNI)
