KOLKATA: Coal India plans to make up for an expected 25 per cent fall in production at its existing mines through new projects to achieve its target of nearly doubling output to one billion tonne by 2020.
The state- run miner has estimated that production will decline at 186 mines while another set of 278 projects will help achieve a net growth of 401.9 million tonnes (MT) by the end of the decade, officials said.
Coal India produced 506.2 MT of coal in 2014-15.
The road map prepared by the company, along with the coal ministry, envisages a target of 548 MT in 2015-16, 597.6 MT in 2016-17, 660.7 MT in 2017-18, 773.7 MT in 201819 and 908.1 MT in 2019-20. The company is working with the ministry to add about 100 MT to the output envisaged by the end of the decade.
The company expects output at existing mines and completed projects that have achieved full scale of operations to decline from 190.6 MT in 2014-15 to 163 MT by 2020.
Ongoing projects, which have been taken up recently and are yet to achieve full volumes are, however, expected to see a 78 per cent increase in production from 315.6 MT in 2014-15 to 561.5 MT in the next five years. In addition, future projects, which are still on the drawing board and are awaiting various clearances, are expected to contribute another 181.6 MT after five years.
As part of the exercise carried out to prepare a road map for producing one billion tonne of coal by 20192020, Coal India had asked all its subsidiaries to identify potential projects to achieve the target.
