India's coal production rises 16 pc to 608 MT in Apr-Dec period: Govt

NEW DELHI: The country's coal output went up by 16.39 per cent to 607.97 million tonnes (MT) during the April-December period of the ongoing fiscal. India's coal production was 522.34 MT in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

The coal production by state-owned Coal India -- which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic output of the fossil fuel -- was at 479.05 MT in the April-December period, registering a rise of 15.82 per cent, the coal ministry said in a statement.

The ministry has paved the way for releasing additional coal in the market by greater utilisation of mining capacities of captive coal blocks which has led to increase in production of coal by captive and other companies by 31.38 per cent to 81.70 MT during the period under review as compared to 62.19 MT in 2021.

The ministry has also amended the Mineral Concession (Amendment) Rules, 1960 under MMDR (Amendment) Act, 2021 to allow lessee of captive mines to sell coal/lignite up to 50 per cent of the total excess production after meeting the requirement of the end-use plants.

The ministry is taking steps to build up rail connectivity infrastructure for all major mines under PM Gati Shakti to ensure faster evacuation. As a result, the total coal despatch have been to the tune of 637.51 MT during April-December period as against 594.22 MT during the same period of FY22, registering a growth of 7.28 per cent.

The Centre has put 141 new coal blocks for commercial sale and has been engaging regularly with various coal companies and keeping a track of its production.

The all-round efforts made to increase the domestic production and despatch have shown extremely good results.