Coal Min Halves Output Target for Captive Mines Move may worsen shortage of fuel

The coal ministry has halved the production targets of captive coal mines owned by the private as well as public sector companies, a decision that is likely to exacerbate the shortage of the fuel supply in the country.  The results framework document prepared by the ministry has set the target for private sector captive coal mines in the current fiscal at 23.7 million tonne (mt), down from 49 mt they produced in 2011-12, while the target for public sector captive mines has been lowered to 15.8 mt from 37.11 mt.  The move comes at a time when CIL has expressed inability to supply more than 65% of the contracted coal to power producers.  Coal ministry officials could not be reached for a comment. But a senior executive in the coal industry said the captive producers were facing the same problems as CIL. "Land acquisition issues and delays in environment and forest clearances have also been acting as deterrents for the captive mine owners," the executive said on condition of anonymity.  In contrast, CIL's target for 2012-13 has been raised to 468 mt, compared with 435.84 mt in 2011-12. The miner was earlier given a target of 447 mt for FY12, but it could not achieve it because of the introduction of a new set of pollution norms, which affected production at a number of its large mines.  debjoy.sengupta@timesgroup.com