Calcutta, April 4: Coal India has missed the production target for 2016-17 as the public sector miner grappled with high pithead inventory and low offtake.

While coal production for the just concluded fiscal at 554.13 million tonnes was 2.9 per cent higher than the previous fiscal, Coal India missed the target of 598.61 million tonnes that was set by the administrative ministry for 2016-17.

In 2015-16, Coal India had produced 539 million tonnes.

The slip in production target happened despite the public sector miner over-achieving the goal set for March. Four out of the eight subsidiaries of Coal India recorded production which was more than the target set for March.

During 2015-16, Coal India had recorded a 9 per cent production growth driven by the Centre's initiative to ramp up domestic coal production and lower dependence on import.

Coal offtake during 2016-17 was 543.16 million tonnes, recording a modest growth of 1.6 per cent over the previous year.

Union coal and power minister Piyush Goyal, in a recent reply to the Lok Sabha, had said that the Centre was constantly monitoring coal stocks both at pitheads and thermal power plants.

As on March 5 this year, the stock at Coal India pitheads was 56.33 million tonnes and it had seen little variation from the 57.64-million-tonne-mark at the beginning of the year.

However, the stock level at thermal power plants has seen a decline from 38.87 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 26.48 million tonnes as of March 5, 2017.

According to Goyal, coal being imported to be blended with domestic supply has seen a decreasing trend in the current year. High stock levels are usually a deterrent to fresh offtake and affects coal sales.

Coal India officials said they are in dialogue with power producers and coal consumers to improve offtake and liquidate stock levels, including higher sales through electronic auction.

For the new fiscal, Coal India has set a production target of 661 million tonnes from its active and future projects.

However, with thermal power producers, the largest consumer of Coal India, sitting on a comfortable stock level, the miner has a stiff challenge to meet the target set for 2017-18. The public sector miner has identified 121 major ongoing projects that are expected to produce 561 million tonnes in 2020, which is 61.78 per cent of its target of 908 million tonnes by the same period.