By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Shri Pralhad Joshi in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Monday said, Coal is the mainstay of energy and contributes about 70% of the total power generation in the country. In view of increasing coal demand, the Government has initiated several measures to enhance coal production not only to provide affordable energy goods for the economy and ensure energy security but also to reduce dependence on import.
The coal production for the financial year 2022-23 has been fixed at 911 MT which is expected to reach 1012MT in 2023-24 and further to 1.3 billion tonne in 2025-26. The major steps taken to ramp up coal production include Single Window Clearance, amendment of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 to allow captive mines to sell up to 50% of their annual production after meeting the requirement of the end use plant, production through MDO mode, increasing use of Mass Production technologies such as surface miner, continuous miner etc., taking up new projects and expansion of existing projects, and auction of coal blocks to private companies/PSUs.
The total Coal production in 2022-23 (upto February, 2023) was 785.24 MT against 681.98 MT during the same period of last year showing growth of 15.14%.
The all India coal production in the year 2021-2022 was 778.19 Million Tonne (MT) in comparison to 716.08 MT in the year 2020-2021 with a growth of about 8.67%. Further, in the financial year 2022-2023 (upto February 2023) the country has produced about 785.24 MT of coal as compared to about 681.98 MT during the same period of last year with a growth of about 15.14%.
The steps taken by the Government to make the country self-sufficient in the production of coal and reduce its imports are as under:
Regular reviews by Ministry of Coal to expedite the development of coal blocks.
Enactment of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2021 for enabling captive mines owners (other than atomic minerals) to sell up to 50% of their annual mineral (including coal) production in the open market after meeting the requirement of the end use plant linked with the mine in such manner as may be prescribed by the Central Government on payment of such additional amount.
Single Window Clearance portal for the coal sector to speed up the operationalization of coal mines.
Project Monitoring Unit for handholding of coal block allottees for obtaining various approvals / clearances for early operationalization of coal mines.
Commercial auction of coal blocks on revenue sharing basis. Under commercial mining scheme, rebate of 50 % on final offer would be allowed for the quantity of coal produced earlier than scheduled date of production. Also, incentives on coal gasification or liquefaction (rebate of 50 % on final offer) have been granted.
Coal India Limited is adopting Mass Production Technologies (MPT) in its Underground (UG) mines, mainly Continuous Miners (CMs), wherever feasible. Coal India Limited has also envisaged working large numbers of Highwalls (HW) mines in view of the availability of Abandoned / Discontinued mines. Coal India Limited is also planning large capacity UG mines wherever feasible.
In its Opencast (OC) mines, Coal India Limited already has State-of-the-Art technology in its high capacity Excavators, Dumpers and Surface Miners. Digitization is being tried on pilot scale in 7 of its mega mines and shall be replicated further.
SCCL is expediting the activities to ground new 8 mines (7 mines in Telangana& one in Odisha).
