CIL, the world’s largest coal miner, on Tuesday said coal production rose 7.7 per cent in April and supplies to users shot up just as summer began.

In a statement, Coal India Ltd (CIL) said it logged an impressive 31 per cent growth in overburden removal (OBR) in April compared to the same month a year ago. “This helps in stepping up production in the upcoming monsoon months,” it said. The company logged a whopping 44 per cent year-on-year growth in supplies to non-regulated sector (NRS).

CIL is firing on all cylinders in anticipation of a summer hotter than the last. It is scaling up production, holding additional coal stocks at its pitheads and has issued directives to power producers to hold higher inventory at their end.

All this in anticipation of electricity demand touching a new high this summer.

Already, the government has ordered the nation’s coal-fired power plants to run at full power. Coal is used to generate some 70 per cent of the electricity in the country and its availability is being shored up to meet the increased demand for cooling in the summer months.

“Sustaining the growth trend of previous fiscal, CIL excavated 169.5 million cubic meters of OB in April, achieving 109 per cent target,” it said.

“Compared to 129.6 million cubic meters in April 2022, the growth was 31 per cent.”

CIL’s coal production grew by 7.7 per cent to 57.6 million tonne in April. The volume increase of 4.1 million tonne was achieved over a high base of 53.5 million tonne in April 2022.

All the subsidiaries of CIL have registered the highest-ever production for the month of April, except ECL.

“Production could have been even higher by around 1 million tonne but for the stoppage of work for four days by contractual workers in Talcher coalfields of MCL,” said a senior official of CIL.