Over 107 coal mines to be made available for auction: Pralhad Joshi

The Ministry of Coal is targeting production of 900 million tonnes in this financial year, and the target of CIL comes to 700 million tonnes, Joshi said

The Centre on Wednesday said that the Ministry of Coal would soon make more than 107 coal blocks available for auction.

Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi announced at an event held here that the Ministry of Coal has signed an agreement with successful bidders of 16 coal mines.

The minister said that during the last four months, Coal India Ltd (CIL) had set a new record by producing around 207 million tonnes of coal. The Ministry of Coal is targeting production of 900 million tonnes in this financial year, and the target of CIL comes to 700 million tonnes, he said.

"The Indian economy is growing at a very fast pace, and coal-based power generation has recorded a 16.8% increase this year, and the production of domestic coal has gone up by 22%. By 2030, India's coal requirement will be 1.5 billion tonnes (sic)," the minister said.

The event marked the successful allocation of 43 coal mines till date since the launch of commercial coal mining in the country by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2020.

"The total annual revenue generation from these three tranches of commercial auction is estimated at Rs 4,286.53 crore considering production at aggregated Peak Rate Capacity level of 23.77 million tonnes per annum. Once fully operational, these coal mines are expected to generate employment for 31,954 persons directly and indirectly. A total investment of Rs 3,565.50 crore will be incurred to operationalise these mines," said the statement from the Ministry.