Coal India Ltd (CIL) arm NCL has said it supplied 87 percent of its total coal to electricity producers in the last fiscal year, thereby fulfilling the power aspiration of the country in these unprecedented times. There was also about 14 percent increment year-on-year in the average supply of coal rakes to upcountry consumers, the PSU said in a statement.

Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), the Singrauli-based miniratna company, surpassed its fiscal production milestone of 113 million tonne (MT) and produced 115.05 MT in 2020-21 with 6.47 percent year-on-year growth. The company has also surpassed its annual overburden removal (OBR) target of 370 million cubic metre, and removed a whopping 374.17 million cubic metres of overburden with a year-on-year growth of 15.76 per cent in the last fiscal year, it said.

Overburden is the material above coal seam that is required to be removed above coal layer for ready exposure. OBR is an important factor to determine a mining company’s output and growth. On this achievement, NCL CMD Prabhat Kumar Sinha congratulated the team and said that even in the testing time of the pandemic, the company’s coal warriors have proven themselves with their unwavering commitment towards energy security of the nation.

The top management has expressed hope that the company will continue to ride the wave with the same synergy. Promoting the sustainable and green mode of transportation, the company has supplied 12 percent more coal using rail mode to consumers, it said. Also, 2.3 percent growth was observed in Merry-Go-Round (MGR) mode of coal transportation, the company said.

NCL supplies about 52 MT of coal through dedicated MGR transportation mode which is directly linked to thermal power plants. In a crucial pro-environmental step, a remarkable decline of 24 percent was seen in coal transportation through road mode in spite of year-on-year growth in the company’s coal dispatch.

NCL operates with 10 highly mechanised opencast coal mines spread in Singrauli and Sonbhadra districts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. NCL is eyeing 130 MT coal production by 2023-24.

First Published:Apr 5, 2021 4:29 PM IST