No shortage of coal, internal consultation underway on listing Coal India's arms: Coal Minister

Having chaired a half-yearly review of coal PSUs yesterday, Minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy has highlighted that there's absolutely no shortage of coal. Stating that excess coal can't be mined and stored due to want of space, he assured that the government is prepared to meet any rise in coal demand for power production as well as for non-thermal use in industries like cement and steel.

The Minister said that internal consultations are underway on listing of Coal India's two arms: CMPDIL and BCCL, which had filed a DRHP earlier this year, adding that the number of independent directors in both these subsidiaries was not a big issue. On being asked about the correctness of a cabinet proposal for coal gasification, he said that he isn't aware of any internal talks over the matter.

With India already having crossed 1 billion metric tonnes (MT) of coal production earlier this year, the Coal Ministry plans to raise annual production of coal to 1.404 billion MT by 2027 and 1.577 billion MT by 2030. Taking note of the additional requirement of coal for an additional 80 GW thermal capacity to be added in India by 2030, the Coal Ministry plans to produce additional coal as per its production enhancement plan to ensure adequate availability of domestic coal to thermal power plants.

The production enhancement plan includes opening of new mines, expansion of capacity of mines and production from captive/commercial mines. The Coal Ministry has indicated that the production plans for 2027 and 2030 will far exceed the likely domestic requirement of thermal power plants in India, including that for likely additional capacity.