Coal minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday said the country needs to move away from open-cast to more environment-friendly underground (UG) mining, as he unveiled a vision plan for state-run Coal India (CIL) to quadruple production from UG mines to 100 million tonne (MT) by FY28.
“We want to increase the share of UG mining of coal to build an Atmanirbhar Bharat with a sustainable mining sector. By 2030, we want to take the share of UG mined coal to 10% (from the current level of 4%). Coal India has prepared a road map,” he said at an event organsied by the PSU.
Joshi said discussions will take place among key stakeholders for executing the plan and identifying changes that would be required in rules, particularly when UG mining will be taken up for commercial coal mining.
