India’s Federal Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said on December 12 that India’s domestic coal production is growing to reduce dependence on imported coal and meet growing demand.
Joshi said that in the 2022-23 fiscal year (April 2022-March 2023), India’s coal production reached a record 893 million tons, a significant increase from 778 million tons in the 2021-22 fiscal year. So far this fiscal year (as of November), India’s total coal production is approximately 591.4 million tons, an increase of 13% over the same period last year.
Joshi said that the rapid growth of coal production is due to the Indian government’s series of measures to promote coal self-sufficiency, including the transparency of commercial mining bidding, accelerating coal mine development and regular review, and amending legislation to allow self-owned coal mines to disclose a certain proportion of their coal production in the public Sold on the market, etc.
“Coal India is upgrading its mining technology and expanding its underground mining production capacity as much as possible,” he said, stressing that certain progress has been made in underground and open-pit coal mining technology.
He also said that in order to meet the growing demand for coal, India plans to increase domestic coal production to 1.5 billion tons by the 2029-30 fiscal year.
In addition, in order to ensure the smooth transportation of coal to end users, the government is focusing on new railway projects to consolidate infrastructure. There are currently 67 “first mile” China Unicom projects under construction with a total production capacity of 885 million tons, with the goal of achieving 1 billion tons of coal Mechanized loading and unloading.
Joshi said that the increase in domestic coal production has also contributed to the gradual decline in imports. From the 2023-24 fiscal year to now (as of September), India’s coal imports have reached 125 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 5.04%.
