Coal production target for 2016-17 fixed at 724.71 million tonnes

The coal ministry has set an all-India coal production target of 724.71 million tonnes for the current financial year (2016-17) against 538.75 million tonnes produced in the previous fiscal (2015-16).

Coal India Limited (CIL) has prepared a roadmap to substantially enhance production of coal to 1 billion tonnes by 2019-20 from the current level of 538.75 million tonnes in 2015-16.

Announcing this in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, union minister of state (IC) for power, coal, new and renewable energy and mines, Piyush Goyal said the focus of the government is to increase domestic production of coal.

Towards this, he said, efforts are being made to expedite environment clearances and forest clearances while also pursuing with state government for assistance in land acquisition and coordinated effort with Railways for movement of coal.

Goyal said Coal India proposes to step up capacity addition through investment in new projects, use mass production technologies and identification of existing on-going projects with growth potential.

The minister said that steps have also been taken by CIL and its subsidiaries to improve the production of coal by adopting latest available technologies such as Continuous Miners, Selective Mining, Surface Miners and Clean Coal Technologies, Coal sizing and sampling technologies.