As many as 17 projects, both big and small, involving production of 101MT, were delayed due to the long wait in getting clearances from the environment and forest ministry

State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) has revised its production target to 486 million tonnes (MT) from 520MT by 2012, as the delay in getting environment and forest clearances for some of its projects have affected production, company chairman Partha S Bhattacharyya told PTI.

"In the mid-term appraisal, the company's production target has been revised to 486MT from 520MT by 2012," he said.

As many as 17 projects, both big and small, involving production of 101MT, were delayed due to the long wait in getting clearances from the environment and forest ministry, Mr Bhattacharyya told reporters in Kolkata after a press conference to announce the Asian Mining Congress, which will be held here from 22nd January.

Mr Bhattacharyya said if CIL received environment and forest clearance for those projects now, the company would still be able to produce 47MT of coal in the remaining two years.

He said normally, it should take 300 days for a project to get clearance, but it has taken about five years to get these clearances.

There should be an integrated approach to give clearances and a proper policy should be formulated for this purpose, he added.