Coal India Limited (CIL) chairman Pramod Agrawal has laid out the task for Bharat Coking Coal Limited to increase the production to 30 MT annually and refused to help out its subsidiary from the poor financial situation.

After a marathon two and a half hour meeting at the BCCL guest house at Dhanbad in the presence of chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) BCCL, Gopal Singh and other directors, Pramod Agrawal, an IAS officer of the 1991 batch, reviewed the strategy to increase production and sale and also look for alternative avenues.

Speaking to media after the meeting, the CIL chairman said, “We reviewed the production, sale and despatch of coal at the BCCL and deliberated on means to further improve it. The focus is on increasing the production and achieving the target of 30 MT annually. If that happens BCCL financial condition would improve automatically and it would not need any body’s assistance.”

Prodded further, Agrawal out rightly said that the BCCL has to find out its own way to improve its financial position and there is no other way. He also advised the BCCL to look for new markets for its product especially in steel sector and ruled out decreasing prices of coal in future.

The CIL chairman further said that time has come to look for alternative sources of energy other than coal.

“Demand for coal can last for a maximum of 25-30 years. We will have to look for other alternate sources like solar... CIL is aware of this challenge and is planning to venture into new frontiers,” said Agrawal.

The chairman also said that BCCL will be expediting the rehabilitation of masses in the fire-subsidence hit area to avoid casualties.