India’s coal production increased to 524.20 million tonnes (MT) during April –November 2022 as compared to 447.54 MT production during the same period in the previous year, registering an impressive increase of 17.13 per cent.
Coal India Ltd (CIL) reported production of 412.63 MT up to November for the year 2022-23 as compared to 353.41 MT during the same period of the previous year, representing an increase of 16.76 per cent, said the Ministry of Coal in a statement on Friday.
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With an objective to enhance coal production capacity, the Ministry of coal has put 141 new coal blocks for commercial auction and has been engaging regularly with various coal companies in the country and monitoring their production.
The all-around efforts made to increase domestic production and dispatch have shown extremely good results. India is the world’s third-largest energy-consuming country and the demand for electricity grows by about 4.7 per cent annually.
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 or lignite up to 50 per cent of the total excess production after meeting the requirements of the end-use plant.
The amendment has paved the way for releasing of additional coal in the market by greater utilisation of mining capacities of captive coal blocks which have led to increase in production of coal by Captive and Other companies by 33.41 per cent to 71.07 MT during Apr-Nov’22 as compared to 53.27 MT production during the corresponding period of FY 22.
The Coal Ministry is taking steps to augment rail connectivity infrastructure for all major mines under PM-Gati Shakti to ensure faster transportation. As a result, the total coal despatch has been to the tune of 557.95 MT during Apr-Nov’22 as compared to 519.26 MT during the same period of FY 22 indicating a growth of 7.45 percent which shows a steady and efficient amount of coal despatch to various sectors across the nation.
