Coal India subsidiary, South Eastern Coalfields Ltd. (SECL), has attained its highest ever coal production of 157.43 million tonnes (mnt) in FY23 on 19 March, thereby surpassing the previous high of 157.36 mnt attained in FY19.
This also marked a growth of 10% y-o-y from 142.52 mnt recorded in the last fiscal.
Historically, the company has been the largest coal producing subsidiary of CIL. However, several constraints resulting from delay in mining activity due to contractual obligations, non-commencement of new projects and limitations due to EC limit, have impeded production.
Notably, SECL’s production dropped to a four-year low in FY22 at a time when CIL production had peaked. During this period, Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. (MCL) had emerged as the largest coal producer.
Even in FY23, MCL has been racing ahead of SECL in terms of coal production. Till date, MCL’s production of 185.28 mnt is 12% higher than SECL.
Project status
At present, SECL operates 62 coal mines spread across Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The company has stepped up production this fiscal in order to meet rising demand from the power sector.
All the mega mines of CIL – Dipka (38 mnt), Kusmunda (45 mnt) and Gevra (52 mnt) – with production capacity in excess of 30 mnt/year are operated by SECL. Till February this fiscal, these three mines collectively produced 108.67 mnt, registering 23% growth y-o-y.
In a new development, Gevra has become the first coal mine in India to record 50 mnt production in a fiscal.
In addition, the other small-scale mines have also outperformed in terms of attaining their FY23 production targets.
Apart from the existing mines, SECL has commissioned coal production at the Rampur Batura project recently. The mine with rated annual capacity of 4 mnt is located in Sohagpur. Earlier, the Ketki mine with a capacity of 870,000 t/year was operationalised under the mine-developer-cum-operator (MDO) mode this fiscal.
Notably, no coal project had been commissioned in FY22. In fact, the last coal project to be commissioned was Saraipali (1.4 mnt/year) back in FY21.
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