NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday said the significant growth in the coal sector is due to a rise in production of the fossil fuel during September. The production of coal in September 2023 increased to 67.27 million tonne (MT), against 58.04 MT in the year-ago period.

As per the index of eight core industries for September 2023 released by Ministry of Commerce & Industries, the index of coal sector showed a year-on-year growth of 16.1 per cent to 148.1 points.

This is the highest growth in last 14 months except for August 2023, as per a release.

The latest data indicates the combined index of eight core industries has shown a noteworthy increase of 8.1 per cent (provisional) in September 2023, compared to the same period in the previous year.