As India’s per capita electricity consumption is likely to double by 2030, energy security of the nation needs to be further reinforced by focusing on coal production and off take, highlights Pralhad Joshi, Union Minister of Coal.

Addressing the Consultative Committee Meeting of the Ministry of Coal, the minister informed the members of the Committee that domestic coal production and availability has gone up substantially in recent years due to a series of innovative measures adopted by the Ministry of Coal.

Pralhad Joshi further informed that under the totally transparent on-line Commercial Coal Mine Auction launched in 2020, so far, 91 mines have been successfully auctioned. The Minister informed the members that issues/concerns raised by them during the meeting will be looked into by the Coal Ministry for suitable remedial measures.

At the meeting, it was informed that 98 blocks have been successfully auctioned of which 7 have been terminated. The annual coal production capacity of these 91 coal blocks is about 221 MT. Once fully operational, there will be investment of about Rs 33,136 crore and employment opportunities for around 3 lakh personnel from these 91 mines. Nine commercial blocks have got mine opening permission out of which six are under production and remaining three will shortly start production.

Overall coal production is likely to surpass one billion tonnes this year. For transportation, rake availability has also improved considerably recently, thereby ensuring adequate coal to the Thermal Power Plants in the country, the minister further informed. He said that production from Commercial/Captive mines has improved substantially.

The senior functionaries first gave a brief detail of overall coal production of India and especially Coal production from captive and commercial mines. It was informed that before 2014, a total of 218 coal blocks were allocated for captive purposes, however, the allocation of 204 mines were turned down by the Supreme Court in 2014.

During the period 2014-2020, 100 coal blocks were allocated for captive use through 10 tranche of auction and 9 tranches of allotment to PSUs, however, out of these 100 blocks, 22 have been cancelled.

The 9th Tranche of Commercial Auction was launched on December 20.

Coal production from captive/commercial mines from Year 2015-16 to 2020-23 has increased from about 28.62 MT to 116.55 MT with a CAGR of 22.21 per cent and it is expected to touch a figure of about 145 MT in FY 23-24.

It is expected that by FY 2030 coal production from captive/commercial will reach to the level of about 350 MT and it will be just next to production from CIL.

The contribution of captive and commercial mines in the total domestic production in Year FY 22-23 is about 13 per cent and it will enhance to about 25 per cent in FY 2030.

Prahlad Joshi informed that the ministry of coal has made several reforms since 2020 such as auction on revenue share basis, incentive for early production and gasification, introduction of national coal and lignite index for pricing, reduction in upfront and BG amount etc.

Several strategies have been adopted for coal production such as revamped mining plan approval process, weekly review meetings with stakeholders including state governments, introduction of Project Monitoring Unit and Single window system, etc.

The Ministry of Coal in consultation with the Ministry of Railways has improved the coal transportation capacity through rail.