CIL 2017/18 production seen at 660 mn tonnes

State-owned Coal India Ltd, the world's largest coal miner, is expected to raise its production to 660 million tonnes in 2017/18 fiscal year, the coal secretary said on Friday.

The miner is expected to achieve its 2016/17 production target of 575 million tonnes and aims to raise output to 1 billion tonnes by 2020, Susheel Kumar told television news channel CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

With coal accounting for about 70 percent of India's power generation, the country is the world's third-biggest producer and importer of the fuel, and government wants to boost domestic output to cut imports.

Coal India, however, has failed to meet its output targets for years due to several reasons including strikes, accidents and protests.

During April-December, Coal India produced 378 million tonnes, lagging behind its target for this financial year ending in March.