KOLKATA: Emboldened after reporting a provisional profit of Rs. 156.11 crore, its first-ever from operations, the perennially loss-making Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), is now planning to come out of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) net by 2010-11. This is a year ahead of what has been indicated by rating agency CARE which is evaluating its revival plan.

Partha S. Bhattacharyya, BCCL Chairman-cum-Managing Director, told reporters here on Thursday that in a bid to bring about a quantum jump in coking coal production, talks had been initiated with Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Tata Steel for developing the Kapuria coal block in Jharia. The block, with reserves of about 150 million tonnes lying at a depth of 500 metres, will need Rs. 800 crore investment. Mr. Bhattacharyya said a special purpose vehicle with equal equity participation by BCCL and its partners would be needed for this proposal. The entire matter was now before the Union Coal Ministry, he said.

He said BCCL's efforts to increase production involved revamping its own equipment capacity (which was affected earlier by an acute funds crunch) with support from its parent Coal India Ltd (CIL) and producing about one million tonnes more through outsourcing about eight patches in addition to the 14 existing.

Production from all these has been pegged at 3.5 million tonnes in 2006-07. During this fiscal, the CIL subsidiary is planning to maintain its investment at Rs. 290.9 crore. Production is being targeted to reach 24.2 million tonnes against 23.3 million tonnes in 2005-06.

The CMD said the company's long-term revival plan was linked with the implementation of the Jharia Action Plan involving rehabilitation of 80,000 families, including 30,000 BCCL employees. "Preparatory work on this massive plan, now under the Centre's consideration, is already on and BCCL has taken measures to shift its employees," Mr. Bhattacharyya said, adding that this would unlock a vast amount of coal deposits now being lost to fire. BCCL's net worth is minus Rs. 4,926 crore (negative).

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