Mumbai, May 6 (FN Agency) In a bid to ensure availability of large stocks of coal in the near future to meet the rising demand and to reduce dependence on imported coal, the Ministry of Coal on Friday opened up closed or discontinued mines of CIL for private players on a revenue sharing model. Speaking at the launch of the closed mines of state-run Coal India at an event organised here, Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said the demand for coal will go up significantly in the days to come. Under this new scheme, Coal India has proposed to open up 20 closed mines of its subsidiaries for re-operationalisation by the private players, wherein the latter will be able to sell the extracted coal in the market at the prevalent rates. In return, Coal India will get a share of the revenue.
“The demand for power will continue to grow and for this, coal will be required. Our endeavour is to become Aatmanirbhar and reduce the import of coal. I urge the private sector to be a part of this initiative,” Joshi said. The minister further said despite achieving the target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the renewable energy sector, the country will still require coal and coal gasification and that’s essential. He said these 20 mines have extractable reserves of nearly 380 million tonne and even if 10-15 percent of it is extracted, we will get around 40 million tonne high quality coal. The minister noted that these discontinued mines have high quality reserves, but due to various constraints of public sector utilities (PSUs) they are unable to revive these closed or discontinued mines.
“We assure full support to the private sector in this. Once the details of the proposal are out and if there are any suggestions from the private sector, we will definitely try to incorporate them,” Joshi added. Earlier, Anil Kumar Jain, Secretary (Coal) said initially 20 mines have been identified under the scheme, but going forward in the next two years, this number could go up to 100 mines. “This is a courageous move taken by the ministry and Coal India to offer large supplies of coal very quickly. These mines are of underground variety and the quality is of high GCV, which India has been importing largely from South Africa at a very high price,” he said, adding that the future of coal mining lies in underground mining.