Kolkata, May 5 (IANS): World's largest coal miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Tuesday said it over-achieved its targeted coal output in the very first month of the new fiscal 2015-16 even as off-take fell behind target.

The company said that against a target of 40.93 million tonnes, it was able to dig out 41.52 million tonnes of coal during April.

While CIL's subsidiary firm Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), a Mini-ratna company, achieved 142 percent of the target, another subsidiary firm, South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) achieved 102 percent and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) was able to achieve 103 percent of the target.

During the month, the remaining five of its subsidiaries fell behind target.

North-Eastern Coalfields (NEC), which was given a minimal target of 0.10 million tonne for the month, lagged behind by 68.4 percent with an output of only 0.03 million tonnes.

Although the coal off-take showed a rise of seven percent during April 2015 compared to April 2014, the off-take target fell short by six percent.

Against an off-take target of 46.21 million tonnes, CIL was able to achieve 43.55 million tonnes.

All of its three subsidiaries which over-achieved the output target (CCL, SECL and MCL) also fell short of meeting the off-take expectations.

The company mined 494.23 million tonnes of coal during 2014-15.