The Coal Ministry on Tuesday said it has reviewed the production of coal with allottees of captive coal blocks, which have either commenced production or are likely to commence production in FY23. The meeting was chaired by Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain.
“It was appreciated that coal production from captive coal blocks during FY22 was 85 million tonnes (mt), an increase of around 3 per cent over 63 mt produced during 2020-21. The enhanced coal production helped in shortening the demand-supply gap in the domestic market,” the ministry said in a statement.
Consistent initiatives
The ministry has taken consistent initiatives to increase the production of coal from captive mines such as bringing in various amendments in laws and rules liberalising the coal sector, regular review meetings with project proponents and State governments for operationalisation of coal mines, appointment of a project management unit (PMU) for facilitating in obtaining various statutory clearances leading up to the starting of coal mines, etc. These initiatives have started yielding results now, it added.
Currently, 106 coal blocks have been allocated by the nominated authority of the ministry and mine-opening permissions have been received for 47 coal blocks. It is expected to increase to 60 during FY23.
The annual peak-rated capacity of operational coal blocks will be around 230 mt and coal production will be enhanced substantially to more than 140 mt during FY23. These measures will lead to a substantial reduction in import of thermal coal and considerable foreign exchange will be saved, the ministry noted.
‘Golden opportunity’
During the meeting, Jain stated that coal block allottees have a ‘golden opportunity’ for increasing the coal production as the price of imported coal is very high at the moment and demand of thermal coal will increase due to a rise in electricity demand.
About 50 per cent sale of the coal has been allotted for captive coal blocks and coal production will not be hampered even in cases where end-use plants are not operational. New coal blocks are being allocated for commercial mining and prospective bidders have shown encouraging responses for these blocks. Some of these blocks have started coal production within a year of allocation.