Indian government to allot 11 coal mines to CIL

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World largest coal miner, state-owned Coal India Ltd. will be getting 11 more coal mines allotted to come closer in achieving the set production target of 1 billion tonnes by 2020.

India’s Coal Minister, Mr. Piyush Goyal recently stated that the government will allot 11 coal mines to various subsidiaries of Coal India. Of the 11 mines, five are deallocated blocks and six are fresh mines.

Once fully in production, these mines will add about 225 million tonnes to the state-owned firm’s annual production capacity by 2022. Coal India Ltd. has a target to produce 1 billion tonnes coal by March 2020, up from around 600 million tonnes projected in the current fiscal.

To achieve the same, Coal India had requested the government to allot it additional coal mines to make all its subsidiaries 100 million tonnes per annum capacity units. However, Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL), Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) do not have adequate reserves of the dry fuel at present.

Seemingly, the allotment of these coal mines to Coal India will make its arms 100 million tonnes plus coal producing subsidiaries. Of the 11 mines, it has been decided to allot three to ECL and four each to BCCL and WCL.