New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS): Minister of Coal and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday urged coal companies to identify and remove production bottlenecks in order to further increase dry fuel production.

He said this while conducting a meeting to review dry fuel production from allocated blocks.

So far in this financial year, 92.3 million tonnes coal has been produced from 54 operational coal blocks.

The meeting was held with officials of Coal India Limited (CIL) at the company's headquarters in Kolkata, where officials of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) were also present.

"Chaired a meeting with officials of @CoalMinistry, @CoalIndiaHQ & @PRO_SCCL to review the company's performance in the Q4 of FY 2022-23," Joshi tweeted.

"Happy to note that CIL has not only achieved 100 per cent of targeted coal production up to January 2023, but also registered 15.2 per cent growth over last year," he tweeted further after the meeting.

Coal offtake by CIL has also been achieved 100 per cent of the target, with a 5.5 per cent growth over last year.

"Directed officials of SCCL to adhere to annual targets and encouraged the coal companies to further scale up coal supplies to thermal power plants," the minister tweeted further.