India targets 900 million tonne coal production in FY23: Minister

With regards to commercial mining, coal minister Pralhad Joshi said 43 mines have been awarded during the last two years and that they will generate employment for nearly 32,000 people

The ministry of coal is targeting production of 900 million tonne (MT) this financial year and national miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) would produce 700 MT coal, union coal minister Pralhad Joshi said on Wednesday.

"During the last four months, CIL has set new record by producing around 207 MT of coal. Indian economy is growing at a very fast pace and coal based power generation has recorded 16.8 per cent increase this year and the production of domestic coal has gone up by 22 per cent. By the year 2030 India’s coal requirement will be of 1.5 billion tonne," Joshi said.

With regards to commercial mining, the minister said 43 mines have been awarded during the last two years. He said the total annual revenue generation from the three tranches of commercial auction is estimated at Rs 4,286.53 crore considering production at aggregated Peak Rate Capacity level of 23.77 MT per annum.

"Once fully operational, these coal mines are expected to generate employment for 31,954 people directly and indirectly. A total investment of Rs 3,565.50 crore will be incurred to operationalise these mines," Joshi said.

The Centre in 2020 opened the coal mining sector with private companies entering the arena of commercial mining and sale of coal – 47 years after coal mining was nationalised in India. It amended the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015, in May to open the coal auction for non-mining, MSMEs and foreign companies.

In the first round in November 2020, among the winning bidders were Adani Enterprises, Hindalco, Vedanta ltd, Essel Mining of the Aditya Birla Group, Jindal Steel & Power ltd, and several new and non-mining companies such as Aurobindo Realty, Yazdani International, JMS Mining, and Boulder Stone Mart. Almost 65 per cent bidders were from the ‘non-end user’ category i.e they are not direct coal user.

Post this, the Centre decided to award mines for commercial use under rolling auction. In the recent round, there were 13 winning bidders - MP Natural Resources Private Limited, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, Assam Mineral Development Corporation Limited, BS Ispat Limited, Platinum Alloys Private Limited and Jindal Steel and Power Limited, among others.