The centre, determined to lower the dependency of Indian firms on imported coal, has come with the proposal to commence operation in new coal mines.
With growing coal demands in the country, centre has come up with the proposal to start 129 coal mines to reach the coal production capacity of additional 458 MnT annually from these mines during twelfth five year plan, as per a new release from ministry.
Indian coal ministry has investigated that annual coal demand for FY16 has grown up to 910 MnT. Centre has planned about 550 MnT of coal production from CIL, and about 150 MnT from SCCL and other captive blocks. Whereas, it has planned about 210 MnT from import by fuel starved sectors including both regulated and non-regulated sectors.
It should be noted that 21 mines out of the above mentioned 129 mines have been already approved, the details of which will be released soon. About 87 MnT of coal production is estimated from the new mines in FY17 and about 182 MnT till FY20. The extra coal produced from these new identified mines can play a significant role in making India self-sufficient in indigenous coal supply and also help in achieving the production target of 1 BnT till FY20.
The above scenario will probably help in reducing the dependency of the country in imported coal for dry fuel needs of different consuming sectors like steel, sponge and private power producers in coming future.
SteelMint has assessed that India has imported about 19.2 MnT of coal in July’15 .
Coal Imports to India FY15 & FY16 M-o-M
Source- SteelMint Research
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