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Mr Dasari Narayana Rao

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Dec 10 The Centre is aiming to ramp up coal output by as much as four times the current production levels to 104 million tonnes by 2011-12, the Minister of State for Coal, Mr Dasari Narayana Rao, said here on Monday.

Speaking at a coal conference, Mr Rao said that production during the current fiscal was expected to be 24.14 million tonnes. “We are currently considering allocation of another 23 blocks for the steel and cement sectors. So the number of existing and potential producers in coal mining stands substantially increased,” he said.

So far, the Government has allocated 172 coal blocks with reserves of 38.78 billion tonnes to 129 end-users in the public and private sectors. Mr Rao said another 23 blocks are currently being allocated to steel and cement sectors and these blocks have the potential of producing about 700 million tonnes of coal per year.

He said the power sector has been allocated 78 blocks with reserves of 23.68 billion tonnes, which can support power generation of about 1 lakh MW of power every year. The Ministry of Power is currently in the process of implementing a massive capacity addition plan aiming to add over 78,000 MW during the current Plan period.

Mr Rao said 38 coal blocks allocated in 2003 would come into production by 2009-12 and are likely to produce 104 tonnes coal by 2011-12.

Also, state-owned Coal India Ltd has been asked to increase underground coal production during the Eleventh Plan and a revised target of 75 tonnes has been set for it during the entire Plan period.

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