Amidst facing flak for failure to supply sufficient coal, the Centre has allotted 116 mines to Coal India Limited (CIL) to augment its production.
“The Coal Ministry has allotted 116 mines to CIL for its expansion,” a source in the government said.
Though the CIL had sought 138 mines, the government has given 116 mines for the time being, sources added.
The development comes at a time when the government has identified 54 coal blocks to be allocated to various sectors including power, steel and cement through auction route.
CIL has identified 142 new projects, including 107 open cast and 35 underground mining schemes with an ultimate capacity of 380.22 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), as new projects and a part of it is likely to be added during the next plan.
Earlier, CIL had said it wanted to take production capacity to 556 million tonnes (MT) by 2016-17. In 2011-12, it had recorded production of 435.8 MT.
The state-run company had also said that it was in the process of earmarking about Rs 30,000 crore for capacity expansion during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17) period.