The government has set up a panel to identify additional mines for allocation to state-owned Coal India as the PSU mining giant is eyeing an output of one billion tonne, says an official.

The 10-member panel under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary of Coal has members from Coal India (CIL) and its consultancy arm Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI), among others.

The terms of reference (ToR) of the panel include intensifying “additional coal blocks for allocation...to CIL/its subsidiaries, keeping in view their long-term production commitments,” according to the official.

The panel will also find additional mines from areas explored in recent years as per standard technical parameters. The committee would “identify the coal/lignite blocks for allocation under the provisions of MMDR Act, 1957 and CBA Rules, 2017 through auction as well as allotment“.

The panel would also review the recommendations of the earlier committee in respect of 117 coal blocks identified in 2014. It would identify the coal blocks not to be allocated due to insignificant reserves/inviolate areas/dense forest/CBM overlap etc.

“The committee is constituted in supersession of the committee formed ...(in) 2014 and will submit its recommendations to the government,” the official said.

Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar had recently said that the country is expected to achieve coal production of 1.5 billion tonne by 2022. Of the 1.5 billion tonnes, one billion tonnes would be contributed by Coal India and the rest by private producers and Singareni Collieries.

The coal ministry had set a target of 1 billion tonnes by 2019-20 for state-run miner Coal India to cut imports and increase the availability of the dry fuel to bolster growth. The world’s largest coal miner Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production

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