Coal production from auctioned mines set to soar to 45 mt this fiscal

The Coal Ministry is hopeful of domestic production from auctioned mines to reach pre-cancellation levels when the current financial year comes to an end. The Supreme Court had cancelled allocations of 208 coal blocks in August 2014. This included 42 coal producing mines.

“The production from 42 operational coal mines during the pre de-allocation period (2014-15) was 43.22 million tonnes. Production stopped in these mines when the Supreme Court had cancelled allocations. This year (2019-20) we expect coal production from the mines auctioned or allocated after the cancellation to reach the pre de-allocation levels,” a Coal Ministry official told BusinessLine. The Ministry estimates that in 2019-20 about 45 million tonnes of coal may be produced from these auctioned or allocated coal mines.