Coal India has set its sights to auction 120 million tonnes (mt) of coal by March 2021, the most in a year with the previous high being 114mt recorded in 2016-17.

Coal India officials on Wednesday said the miner has auctioned 81.4mt under five windows till December 2020, higher by 35.2mt compared with 46.2mt sold in the same period a year ago.

Beginning October 2020, Coal India introduced a special spot auction for importers, under which it had already booked 7.3mt in three months.

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Apart from increased volume bookings, the sales have fetched a premium of 15 per cent in prices during April-December 2020.

Among the subsidiaries, Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) clocked a 40 per cent increase over the notified prices with Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) registering 23 per cent and 22 per cent rise, respectively.

“Auction sales have surpassed our previous estimates and we feel sure of allocating 120mt of coal by the end of the current financial year,” a senior official of the company said.

“We have identified specific mines in ECL, BCCL, CCL and SECL from where the response has been positive in the e-auction and there is potential for further increase,” the official added.

The demand through e-auction is primarily from the non-power sector consumers, who under the exclusive auction window booked 19.8mt during the first nine months of the ongoing fiscal.

This is more than a three-fold increase against 6.8 million tonnes bought by the sector on a year-on-year basis.

However, demand is gradually picking up from the power sector as well.

In December, there was a significant increase in bookings under the special forward auction at 5.1mt compared with 0.5mt in the same month year ago, fetching a premium of 12 per cent.

Meanwhile, the coal ministry has said the government is taking several initiatives to augment the evacuation infrastructure, including laying new railway lines.