Chakravarti in Calcutta on Thursday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta, March 30: Eastern Coalfields, a subsidiary of Coal India, is set to make a profit this fiscal, its first since inception in 1975.

The company has posted a net profit of Rs 360 crore compared with a net loss of Rs 679.20 crore in the previous fiscal.

Buoyed by the strong numbers, D. Chakravarti, chairman and managing director of ECL, said the sick company would come out of BIFR by 2007-08.

?We hope to have a positive networth in two years and also wipe out the accumulated loss in another five years,? Chakravarti said here today.

The accumulated loss of ECL in 2004-05 was Rs 5,618.34 crore, which will be reduced to Rs 5,260.94 crore by the end of the current fiscal.

?According to projections with the BIFR and the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises, ECL?s networth will become positive by 2009-10. Since our profits have jumped to Rs 360 crore against the projected Rs 81 crore in 2005-06, we are confident to have a positive networth by 2007-08,? he added.

Coal India has also promised a loan waiver of Rs 519 crore and conversion of current account balance of over Rs 1,500 crore to equity.

ECL?s sales growth ? 13.72 per cent against 6 per cent of Coal India in 2005-06 ? has led to the improved performance. At the same time, ECL also gained from higher coal price. ECL will close this fiscal with a production of 31 million tonnes, its highest ever.

The CIL subsidiary has lined up total investment of Rs 2,956 crore till 2012-13. Entire investment will be met through internal resources.

With investments, expansion and greenfield mines ECL was targeting to enhance coal production to 43.74 million tonnes by 2009-10 and 46.91 million tonnes by 2012-13.