Coal India Ltd (CIL) will work on priority to meet the 780 MT production target for FY24, its new Chairman PM Prasad said on Saturday.

Prasad took charge as the Chairman of the mining giant on July 1. He succeeds Pramod Agrawal, who superannuated on June 30, 2023.

"Underlining his priority, the chairman said CIL would achieve the 780 million tonne (MT) output target of FY2024 with all efforts and means available at its disposal," a Coal India statement said.

In FY 2022-23, CIL produced 703 MT of coal.

Ensuring uninterrupted coal flow to the power sector will be another priority area, he said.

In his last stint, Prasad was the chairman of CIL's Jharkhand-based arm Central Coalfields Limited (CCL). Coal India, under the Ministry of Coal, has eight subsidiaries in total.

He began his CIL career in 1984 as a management trainee at Western Coalfields Limited and served in different capacities across different CIL subsidiaries.

He also had a three-year stint in NTPC as Executive Director (coal mining).

The coal mining veteran is a post-graduate in mining engineering from the Indian School of Mines IIT Dhanbad. Sharing details of Q1 FY24, CIL said production has shot up by 10 per cent year-on-year to 175.5 MT, which is the highest ever recorded in the first quarter. In June, the production rose by 12.4 per cent to 58 MT compared to 51.6 MT in June 2022.

CIL excavated 497.5 million cubic metres (MCuM) of OB (overburden) during April-June 2023.

The total supplies during the quarter ended June 2023 were 187 MT, posting 5.3 per cent growth compared to 177.5 MT of Q1 FY22. "Non-power sector consumers continue to receive higher quantities of coal in the current fiscal at 33.4 MT in the first quarter," the company said.

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