Union Coal and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday stressed on increase in coal production and long-term planning to ensure adequate coal supply to consumers.
The Minister was on a day-long visit in Odisha to inspect mining operations in both Ib Valley and Talcher Coalfields of the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), which has an ambitious target of producing 162.5 million tonnes during the current fiscal.
Taking a note of mines’ low performance following the delay in shifting of Y-curve siding, Goyal directed both MCL and Railways officials to take up this project on fast track so that production from mines does not hamper.
“We need to review mine-wise, regarding coal dispatch capability of the mines,” Goyal said while suggesting for long-term planning of 20 years to overcome bottlenecks and ensure adequate supplies to consumers.
The Minister was hopeful of the MCL achieving its otherwise uphill production target. “I can see you have a potential to achieve, rather exceed, your target of 100 MT coal output from the Talcher Coalfields alone,” he said.
The Minister, who was welcomed by a large number of villagers and their representatives, including the Talcher MLA, assured that the increase in the coal production from mines would directly benefit the district and also help the State execute more developmental projects.
Goyal was accompanied by Coal Secretary Inderjit Singh, Coal India Chairman AK Jha and MLCL CMD RR Mishra.
Notably, the MCL, which produced over 143 MT of coal in 2017-18, plans to produce a record 100 MT from the Talcher Coalfields in Angul district and 62.5 MT from the Ib Valley Coalfields in Jharsuguda and Sundargarh districts.