Coal India produced 703 million tonne of coal in FY23 and has a target of 780 MT in the current fiscal.
State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) has drawn up 52 coal mining projects, including 13 new coal blocks, to reach the one billion tonne coal production target by financial year 2025-26, a company official said.
“Apart from the expansions and greenfield projects, we are also trying to do more of underground coal mining for better grades of coal that will help reduce India’s coal imports. Of the 52, eight are underground projects,” he said.
Coal India produced 703 million tonne of coal in FY23 and has a target of 780 MT in the current fiscal. It has set a target to produce one billion tonne of coal by FY26, by when coal minister has said India will start exporting coal.
These coal projects will contribute a total of 271 MT of coal to CIL’s production in FY26. Their total peak rated capacity, which will happen in different years for different coal mining projects till financial year 2030-31, will be 445 MT.
The maximum number of coal projects are coming up in Jharkhand with the Central Coalfields Ltd working on 15 and Bharat Coking Coal Ltd working on one. Ten projects are coming up in Maharashtra and nine in Chhattisgarh.
The CIL through its various subsidiaries has lined up 13 new mining projects and these will add 27.4 MT in FY26. The peak rated capacity of the greenfield projects is 130 MT, or 29% of the total PR capacity of the 52 projects.
The state-run coal major is focusing on the green mining options in a bid to cut down adverse impact on environment. It plans to ramp up its underground coal production four-fold from current 26 MT in FY23 to 100 MT by FY28.
“Underground coal mining is environmentally clean, minimally invasive on land degradation and is friendly to society. Now we have the mass production technology to make underground mining more viable,” the official said.
Besides, at the current rate of mining, the coal reserves at existing opencast mines will reach their ultimate pit level within a decade, he added.
Source: PTI
