Coal India to open big, new mine this year to fight power crisis

State-run Coal India will open this year what is expected to become one of the country’s biggest coal mines, officials said, as India struggles to keep pace with surging power demand.

Output from the new Siarmal mine in eastern Odisha state would rise gradually, reaching a capacity of 50 million tonnes in about five to seven years, Vinayak Jamwal, spokesman for Coal India unit Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL), told Reuters.

Production would initially start in the October to December quarter at an annualised rate of about 2 million to 5 million tonnes, Jamwal said.