India's coal production drops marginally by 2% to 716 mn tonnes in FY'21

India's total coal production registered a marginal decline of 2.02% to 716.084 million tonnes during the last fiscal year

India's total coal production registered a marginal decline of 2.02 per cent to 716.084 million tonnes during the last fiscal year.

The country had produced 730.874 million tonnes (MT) of coal in FY'20, according provisional statistics of 2020-21 of the coal ministry.

Of the total production of 716.084 MT, 671.297 MT was non-coking coal and the remaining 44.787 MT was coking coal, it said.

Of the total output of the nation, a chunk of 685.951 MT was produced by the public sector, and the remaining production of 30.133 MT was from the private sector.

In FY 2020-21, Chhattisgarh registered highest coal production of 158.409 MT, followed by Odisha 154.150 MT, Madhya Pradesh 132.531 MT, and Jharkhand 119.296 MT.

Like previous years, in FY'21, Jharkhand was the top producer of coking coal with an output of 44.387 MT, which was 99.11 per cent of total coking coal production of 44.787 MT.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said even though the effect of the pandemic has been everywhere, coal sector has shown its resilience reflecting the criticality of its contribution to the steady development of India's economy.

Coal secretary Anil Kumar Jain said that coal forms the backbone of India's energy system as it contributes to nearly 58 per cent of the country's commercial primary energy supply and coal-based power forms more than 70 per cent of power generated in the country.

Coal India Ltd alone accounts for 83.26 per cent of coal production in the country.