India’s drive to ramp up coal output to meet growing energy demand is faltering due to banks’ reluctance to finance newly auctioned mines, though most lenders remain far from ditching fossil fuels for good, analysts and officials said.
Of the 87 mines auctioned to private companies in the past three years in a push called “Unleashing Coal” – part of India’s energy self-sufficiency plans – only four are operating, with the rest awaiting financing, a federal coal ministry official said, asking not to be named.
Coal officials and banking executives in the world’s second-largest coal producer discussed the issue at a June meeting called by the government in a bid to ease the funding deadlock.
