CIL to invest Rs 18,000 cr in 11th Plan period

Kolkata, Apr 5: Coal India Limited, the largest coal PSU, will invest Rs 18,000 crore in the 11th Plan period and increase the coal production to 520 million tonne.

Speaking at a press conference here today, CIL Chairman Partha Bhattacharya said,''The Coal Working group estimates predict substantial increase in coal demand. On the basis of this estimate, we target to increase production to 520 million tonne in the said plan period. In addition to this the captive coal production will be 118 mt.'' CIL's coal production in 2006-07 was 470 mt. The company's coal production target for 2007-08 has been fixed at 384.5 million tonnes (MT) against the last year's coal output of at 360.94 MT.

CIL targets to take up 119 coal projects during this plan period and another 80 projects had been approved in the 10th Plan period which would be implemented in the 11th Plan. In order to execute these projects we need additional 41,000 hectares for which forest clearance and other approvals are needed,'' Mr Bhattacharya. The company has 1,50,000 hectares currently.

''The company has already executed 97 projects in the 10th Plan period,'' he said.

He also mentioned that coal price would be increased soon and the CIL has already applied to the Centre in this regard.

He said during 2006-07 the company actually produced 1624.96 mt of coal and earned a pre-tax profit of Rs 29,445.59 crore and paid to the government an amount of Rs 16,384.42 crore in the form of various taxes and dividend.

This includes the highest ever dividend paid to the Centre by CIL accounting to Rs 1,500 crore against Rs 1,263 crore paid in the previous year.

UNI