Weather, law & order problems hit Coal India output

KOLKATA: The widening gap between Coal India's production and target is mainly due to weather conditions and law and order problems, a senior executive of the state-run coal behemoth has said. In the four months to end-July, the company missed its production target by 5 per cent and sales target by 8 per cent.

Data shows that the gap has widened each month after April, the first month of the current fiscal when the miner managed to achieve its targets. "Production was affected earlier by extreme heat during summer when the government of Odisha banned any mining and loading of coal between 11 am and 4 pm. This hampered both production and sales to a large extent," a senior Coal India executive said, adding that during monsoon, several mines were flooded, leading to suspension of work.

"Law and order issues in Central Coalfields and Mahanadi Coalfields affected production and sales." Data shows that all eight Coal India subsidiaries missed their sales targets. Western Coalfields, South Eastern Coalfields and Mahanadi Coalfields missed their targets by 9 per cent each.

On the production front, all subsidiaries expect Mahanadi Coalfileds and Bharat Coking Coal missed their targets by 3 per cent to 9 per cent. During the period, Coal India’s sales grew by 2.6 per cent and production by 4.2 per cent — both short of target by large margins.

Coal India, which accounts for nearly 80 per cent of the country’s coal output, has targeted 9 per cent growth in production and sales this year.