Coal India to increase coal production to 1,000 mn tonnes in 4 years

Underground gasification of coal to ensure cleaner environment and enhanced coal washing is also being considered

The government is working to increase coal production by Coal India Ltd to 1,000 million tonne in the next four years through the use of latest environment-friendly technology, Lok Sabha was informed today.

The estimated production planned by CIL during 2019-20 is 908.10 million tonne and there are plans to raise it upto 1,000 million tonne, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said while responding to supplementaries during Question Hour.

The roadmap prepared by CIL to increase the production has been put in public domain, he said.

The minister said technology such as underground gasification of coal to ensure cleaner environment and enhanced coal washing is being considered. He said the underground gasified coal can be used to fuel gas-based plants.

He also said there was no power shortage in the country and all thermal plants have stocks of upto 25 days. He claimed that earlier the plants had 'zero day' stocks and the coal used to be sent directly to the plants to fuel them.

Goyal said the CIL had stocks of 54 million tonne, which have now been brought down to 45 million tonne, as "good practice calls for not having excess reserves".

Responding to another question, he said about 10,180 MW capacity based on super-critical technology can be installed after replacement of old units of 5860 MW. The total estimated fund requirement is around Rs 70,000 crore.