Union Minister Pralhad Joshi said on Monday that the government does not plan to privatize the state-owned Coal India Ltd.
The announcement comes in the wake of the government opening coal mining to the private sector and announcing that commercial mining would be done on revenue-sharing arrangements rather than set rupee / tonne.
"The Government of India does not intend to privatise Coal India Ltd. Instead, the government is strengthening CIL and will continue to do so," the Coal Minister said.
The government has announced a Rs 50,000 crores investment under 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' to build and improve infrastructure facilities for Coal India, he said.
It will help Coal India meet a coal production target of 1 billion tons by 2023-24, the minister said.
CIL accounts for more than 80 per cent of domestic coal output.
"It's also an opportunity for CIL to open up new mines and increase coal production to reduce the country's coal imports, saving valuable forex," he said.
He said CIL would replace 100 million tons of coal imports annually in the near future.