Coal Secretary Anil Jain said that FY20’s coal production was lower than the target of 660 million tons due to the flooding of a major coal mine.
India will produce a record 700 million tons of coal by the current fiscal year ending March 2021, helping to reduce imports, said Coal Secretary Anil Jain.
India produced 602.14 million tons of coal in the fiscal year 2019-20, slightly lower than the previous year’s output of 606 million tonnes.
“We are on track to producing 700 million tonnes of coal in 2020-21 fiscal,” Jain told PTI in an interview.
This record output will help stop most of substitutable coal imports, he said.
India imports 235 million tons of coal annually. About half of this is non-substitutable, as it is linked to power plants or user factories, but the rest can be cut down, he said.
“We will be able to cut substitutable coal imports with this rise in production,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the target of expanding the country’s economy to USD 5 trillion by 2024, from USD 2.9 trillion today, and reducing energy imports and harnessing domestic resources are key to achieving that goal.
In order to meet the objective of reducing imports, Coal India Ltd is aiming to increase its annual output to 1 billion tons by fiscal year 2024.
Jain said that FY20’s coal production was lower than the target of 660 million tons due to the flooding of a major coal mine.
Power plants, which are key users of coal, have a capacity of up to 30 days due to the coronavirus lockdown, he said.
The lockdown shut down factories and offices, slashing electricity demand by about a quarter, affecting the use of coal and causing inventories to rise to record levels.
Coal India Ltd has stored a record 75 million tons in its mines, while the inventories of the power station have risen to 44.7 million tonnes, the highest in 2008 data.
The combined inventories are more than the two-month average of Coal India’s last fiscal year.
The demand for coal, he said, is going to pick up again after the lockdown has been lifted. Jain said that coal production was around 40 million tons in April, down from 45 million tons a year ago.
Coal’s share of electricity generation in India is estimated to fall to 50 per cent from about 72 per cent by 2030.
