The parliamentary standing committee on coal and steel said that the issue of high-operating costs of coal mines run by the PSUs requires the Union coal ministry’s “serious consideration”. During FY19, the lowest operating cost of an open cast (OC) mine owned by Coal India Ltd (CIL) was Rs 455.5 per tonne, while the highest cost was pegged at Rs 1,889 per tonne. For underground (UG) mines, operating costs ranged between Rs 4,879.8 and Rs 27,051.5 per tonne.
Flagging the variation in the operating cost of OC and UG mines, the committee noted that the measures taken by the coal companies have not been successful in bringing down the operating cost in OC and UG mines.
