Kolkata, Mar 23 (IANS): State-run Coal India Limited (CIL), the world's largest coal miner, has sought more rakes from the Indian Railways to meet targeted off-take of 492 million tonnes of the fuel in the next financial year.

"To attain the targeted off-take for excellent rating, CIL has sought 212.2 railway rakes per day, on an annual basis for 2013-14 against the average availability of 167.7 rakes during 2011-12 and about 184 rakes during 2012-13," a Coal India release said here.

"Average growth of coal movement through rail was around 5.21 percent during the last four years whereas CIL envisages a growth of around 8.67 percent through rail for achieving the above target," it said.

The coal behemoth Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its administrative ministry, the Ministry of Coal, for its key performance areas for the fiscal year 2013-14.

Coal Ministry Secretary S.K. Srivastava and CIL Chairman S. Narsing Rao signed the document in Delhi.

According to the MoU, for the next fiscal the coal ministry has fixed coal production and off-take targets of 482 million tonnes (mt) and 492 mt respectively against previous year's coal production and off-take target of 464.1 mt and 470 mt respectively.

Coal off-take increased by about 32 mt as of March 20 over the same period last year, while total increase in coal production over last year was about 18 mt.

The required growth rates for achieving coal production and off-take targets of 2013-14 are about 7.11 percent and 5.80 percent respectively, the coal miner said.