The country’s coal production increased 16% to 607.97 million tonnes in the April-December period of the ongoing fiscal. India’s coal output was at 522.34 million tonnes in the year-ago period.
“India’s coal production increased impressively by 16.39% to 607.97 MT during Apr-Dec’22 as compared to 522.34 MT produced during the same period of FY 22,” the Ministry of Coal said in a statement.
State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL) reported coal production of 479.05 MT up to December of FY 23 as compared to 413.63 MT during the same period of FY 22, representing an increase of 15.82%.
To augment coal production capacity, the government has put 141 new coal blocks for commercial mines auction and has been engaging regularly with various coal companies in the country and monitoring their production, the coal ministry said in a statement.
The all-round efforts made to enhance the domestic coal output and despatch have shown extremely good results.
India is the world’s third largest energy consuming nation and the demand for electricity grows by about 4.7 per cent annually.
There has been a rise in production of coal by captive and other companies by 31.38 per cent to 81.70 million tonnes during April-December period as compared to 62.19 million tonnes production during corresponding period of previous financial year.
The coal ministry is taking steps to increase rail connectivity infrastructure for all major mines under PM Gati Shakti for faster transportation. Consequently, the total coal despatch has been at 637.51 million tonnes during April-December period, registering a growth of 7.28 per cent.
