Kolkata, Sep 23 (IANS): The state-owned Coal India Limited on Wednesday said it is pursuing a multi-pronged strategy to meet the coal output target of one billion tonnes by 2020.

"Coal India is faced with challenging targets in the ensuing years. The company needs to step into double digit growth from that of around seven percent achieved during 2014-15. To sustain the growth momentum... the company has formulated a multi-pronged strategy," said Sutirtha Bhattacharya, the company's chairman, during its annual general meeting here.

He said the company was collaborating with states and the railway department to develop critical railway links for evacuation of coal.

"There are coalfields which have large deposits of coal and huge production potential but are not properly connected through rail links for evacuation," he said.

According to the official, three such coalfields which are expected to play critical roles are in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

"Coal India is actively pursuing progress of these railway links. Special Purpose Vehicles have been created in a tripartite partnership between the railway ministry, coal ministry and respective state governments," Bhattacharya said.

Apart from creating the railway links, the fossil fuel miner is considering upscaling the usage of hydrostatic drilling for a high rate of mining.

"Presently eight are in operation and five more are to be added by 2016-17," he said.

The increased usage of geophysical loggers is also being considered.

"We propose to promote more of high capacity equipment, operator independent truck dispatch system, CHP and SILOS for faster loading and others," he said while talking about open cast mines operations.

It will also pursue use of more technology in underground mines operations.