MCL sets target to produce 250 MT coal by 2020: Jha
05 April, Bhubaneswar
Mahanadi Coal Field Ltd (MCL), one of the leading coal producing cpmpaniesin the country, has targeted to produce 167 million tons of coal during 2015-16 and 250 MT of coal by 2020.
Addressing a press conference here on the completion of 25 years of the company, MCL CMD A K Jha Tuesday said the company needed huge infrastructure and would go for state of the art technology to achieve the target and provide good quality coal to its consumers.
He said by 2020 the Coal India Ltd has targeted to produce one billion tons of coal, and the MCL would contribute 250 MT which constituted 25 per cent of the total target to achieve the goal.
Jha said a SPV, a state of the art washing plant would be made operational soon. He said two Coal Wasing Plants with total capacity of 20 MT would be set up for which the order has been placed for a 10 MT coal washing plant at Bharatpur which would be made operational by 2018. A railway line from Jharsuguda to-Barpalli and from Barpalli to Subdega for the speedy transportation of coal would also be constructed.
He said while the Jharsuguda-Barpalli railway line would be completed by June 2016, the Barpalli-Subdega railway line would be completed by March 2017. Mr Jha said the growth in coal production had gone up significantly during the last two years. From the earlier 1 to 2 per cent growth in coal production the MCL had achieved a growth of 13.61 per cent in 2015-16. He said while the thermal power plants were facing acute shortage of coal during 2012-13 and 2013-14. But at present almost tall the thermal power plants have a stock of coal for 28 days. Not a single power plant is in a critical or supercrticial situation, Jha remarked.
Replying to a question, the MCL CMD said the construction of the proposed medical College has already been started and it would be completed within two and half years. The academic session of the college would be started in 2019-20. When asked to comment on the Chief Minister’s request to allocate the Baitarani East Coal Block to state owned OPTCL, Jha said coal is a property of the central government and he would have no objection if it was given to OPTCL.
He said it would have no impact on the business of the Company. Jha said the company wanted to set up a 1600 MW Super critical Thermal Power plant at Gajabahal within three years. The company has already obtained the environmental clearance, completed land acquisition.
The state government, he said has assured water for the project and the work on the Project would soon after the company gets the coal linkage. The MCL CMD said the company has produced 137.90 MT coal in the fiscal 2015-16 by the end of March 2016 over 121.38 MT produced last year registering a growth of 13.61 per cent.
The gross turn over of MCL in 2015-16 was 19053.15 crore against 15693.71 crore in 2014-15. The company made Rs 3186.20 crore profit after tax in 2015-16 against 3554.10 crore in 2014-15. The company, Jha said had paid Rs 2585.54 crore to the state exchequer in 2015-16 against Rs 2003.82 crore in 2-014-15. Similarly Rs 7388.95 crore was paid to the Central government in 2015-16 against Rs 4525.69 crore in 2014-15.