NewsR Staff
Amid lower demand following the impact of Covid-19 and disrupted economic activities, the state-run Coal India Limited’s production has declined by 11.6 percent in the first quarter of financial year 2020-21.
Coal India said that provisional coal production dropped 11.6% to 121.01 million tonnes (MT) in during April-June 2020 as compared to 136.94 MT produced during the corresponding period of previous year. The coal offtake has also fallen sharply during the period.
Provisional coal offtake slipped 21.4% to 120.62 MT in the first quarter of FY21 as against 153.40 MT registered during the same period last year. The CIL officials expect that the situation would remain the same in the current quarter.
The Coal Ministry has set a target for the CIL to keep the output for 2020-21 at 710 million tonnes in line with its goal to achieve 1 billion tonnes by FY2024. The government expects the fuel demand to pick up after the lockdown imposed to combat coronavirus.
In the last financial year, the CIL fell short of the target though unfriendly mining conditions in many projects had severely affected the output throughout the year. As against the target of 660 MT, CIL could produce 602.14 MT in 2019-20.
