Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), which operates mines in Jharkhand and West Bengal, will invest Rs.12 billion in equipment by 2011-12 as part of its revival strategy, says a top company official.

'We will invest about Rs.12 billion in phases by 2011-12. The amount would be spent on buying equipment used in all our operative mines across the two states,' A.K. Paul, the company's chairman and managing director, told IANS on phone from Dhanbad district of Jharkhand.

He said the BCCL, a unit of Coal India Ltd, has set a target of producing 26.5 million tonnes (MT) of coking coal in the current financial year and will further increase the production volume to 30 MT by 2011-12.

'This equipment would be bought as part of the revival plan and would help achieve the projected production target of BCCL,' he said.

The state-run company has 66 operative mines of which 36 are underground mines, 12 opencast and 18 mixed mines. These coalmines are in the two eastern states of West Bengal and Jharkhand, with a workforce of over 80,000 people.

'We are very hopeful that BCCL would come out of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) list by 2012. The company was first referred to the list in 1994-95,' he said.

'Against the production plan of 26.5 MT of coking coal in 2008-09, BCCL has placed 5 MT under e-auction, of which 4 MT will be spot auction and 1 MT would be through forward e-auction,' said Paul.

He said the coal ministry had proposed in March this year that eight washeries with a capacity of 2.5 MT be set up in BCCL for washing of non-coking coal.

'We are expecting that the sales figures will increase from Rs.33.38 billion in 2007-08 to Rs.39.57 billion in 2011-12. The profit after tax (PAT) shall increase from Rs.850 million in 2007-08 to Rs.5.43 billion by the same period,' he said.