As per provisional figures of the Ministry of Coal, India’s coal production increased impressively by 15.10% to 784.41 Million Tons (MT) during Apr 22-Feb 23 as compared to 681.5 MT produced during the same period of FY 22. Coal India Ltd (CIL) reported production of 619.70 MT up to February of FY 23 as compared to 542.38 MT during the same period of FY 22, representing an increase of 14.26%.
Coal Ministry has paved the way for releasing additional coal in the market by greater utilization of mining capacities of captive coal blocks which has led to increasing in production by Captive and Other companies by 29.83% to 104.58 MT (provisional fig.) during Apr’22-Feb’23 as compared to 80.55 MT produced during the corresponding period of FY 22. The Ministry has also amended the Mineral Concession (Amendment) Rules, 1960 under MMDR (Amendment) Act, 2021 to allow the lessee of captive mines to sell coal up to 50% of the total excess production after meeting the requirement of the end-use plants.
The Ministry is taking steps to augment rail connectivity infrastructure for all major mines under PM Gati Shakti to ensure faster evacuation of coal. As a result, the total coal despatch has been to the tune of 793.86 MT (provisional fig.) during Apr’22-Feb’23 as compared to 740.96 MT during the same period of FY 22 representing a growth of 7.14% which shows a steady and efficient amount of coal despatch to various sectors across the nation.
With an objective to enhance the coal production capacity, the Ministry has put 141 new coal blocks for commercial auction and has been engaging regularly with various coal companies and monitoring their production. Hence, domestic production and despatch have shown excellent results.
