NEW DELHI, May 7: The Union coal ministry expects a 6.8 per cent growth in the production of the black diamond last year. The projection is in keeping with the dramatic 6.4 per cent growth in output achieved during 1995-96 after several years of a modest three per cent increase in coal production.

The estimates, however, are not borne out by actual statistics available with the ministry. In the first eight months of 1996-97 coal production only recorded a modest 3.9 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. Between April and December last year coal production went up to 196.63 million tonne, which is a little less than four per cent increase over 181.12 million tonne of coal production in the first eight months of 1995-96.

Between April and December last year public sector undertaking (PSU) Coal India Limited (CIL) produced 173.33 million tonne of coal, which was 7.8 per cent more than the 160.78 tonne it produced during the corresponding period of 1995-96. Coal India accounts for 88 per cent of the coal production of the country.

Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) produced 18.88 million tonne of coal in the first eight months of last year, which was 15.9 per cent more than in the first eight months of 1995-96.

The drop in the pace of growth could, therefore, have only come from the captive coal mines of Tata Steel, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and its subsidiary, the Indian Iron and Steel Company (Iisco) and other stray coal mines like those in Meghalaya.

None of the captive coal mines allocated to private sector companies in 1995 have begun production as yet.

The country's coal output has been going up at a modest pace of roughly three per cent since 1992, despite the dramatic policy measures taken to woo the private sector into coal mining.

During 1994-95, or the year in which the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act was amended to allow the private sector to mine coal for captive consumption, production of the black mineral went up by 3.12 per cent to 253.73 million tonne from 246.04 million tonne the year before. During 1993-95 coal production increased by 3.2 per cent over that of the previous year.

The following year the cumulative production of coal in the country was 270.13 million tonne, which was roughly 16 million tonne and 6.4 per cent more than that of the year before.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.