10% production growth in Q4 must to meet target: CIL

KOLKATA: In order to meet coal production target of 464 million tonne in the current fiscal, state-owned Coal India Ltd will have to clock a 10 per cent growth during the January-March quarter, CIL chairman S Narsingh Rao said here today.

"47 days are left (in the current financial year). To meet our target of 464 MT, CIL has to achieve a 10 per cent growth rate", Rao told reporters here.

He said to meet the coal offtake (read sales) target of 470 MT the required growth would be 11 per cent.

CIL registered a growth of 9.2 per cent in offtake during the third quarter ended December and Rao was optimistic that the target would be achieved.

He said the company during the first nine months of 2012-13 has achieved a production of 308.91 MT compared to 291.24 MT registering a growth of 6.07 per cent. The offtake growth during the nine month period was 8.05 per cent.

CIL had missed the production target during the previous fiscal when the company had produced 435.84 MT against 447 MT.

On the possibility of hike in coal price, the CIL chairman said: "Possibility is always there but at present there is no proposal before us for any price increase."