Coal India sets 468MT production target for 2012-13

State-owned Coal India (CIL) today said it has fixed a production target of 468.74 million tonnes (MT) for the current fiscal.

"CIL... signed MoU with its administrative ministry - Ministry of Coal - for its key performance areas for the fiscal 2012-13... CIL's targeted production and coal off-take had been fixed at 468.74 MT and 474.70 MT respectively," the company said in a statement. The world's largest coal producer, which accounts for over 80% of the domestic production, said it has sought 193.3 rakes per day from the Railways for 2012-13. The average availability of rakes in 2011-12, it added, was 168 rakes a day while in 2010-11 the figure stood at 161.9 rakes a day. "Average growth of coal movement through Rail has only been around 3% during the last 3 years, whereas CIL has envisaged a growth of around 12.6% through rail," the statement said. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by former CIL Chairman Zohra Chatterji and Coal Secretary Alok Perti. The state-run coal miner said its research and development activities have taken a quantum jump with expenditure of 30 crore in 2010-11 as against Rs 10 crore and Rs 15 crore annually in the previous financial years. CIL missed its revised 2011-12 production target as it achieved only 435.84 MT as against 447 MT.