Coal India is working on the process of listing its subsidiary Bharat Coking Coal Limited which will be followed by the listing of its research and development arm - Central Mine Planning and Design Institute Limited (CMPDIL).

Addressing the shareholders query at the 49th annual general meeting, PM Prasad, chairman and managing director, Coal India Limited said that the process of listing of BCCL has started. “We have identified the banks. First we will be listing BCCL and CMPDI will follow,” Prasad said.

Coal India had informed the stock exchanges in May 2022 that as per advise of ministry of coal, the public sector miner’s board has given ‘in-principle’ approval to the divestment of 25 percent of paid up share capital of BCCL held by CIL and its subsequent listing on stock exchanges.

Both BCCL and CMPDIL are profit-making subsidiaries of Coal India with profits of Rs 502.88 crore and Rs 366.95 crore in 2022-23 as per the annual report of FY23.

BCCL is a key subsidiary that the government expects to play a role in meeting domestic coking coal requirements for the steel industry. Earlier in May, BCCL had invited agencies to mine coking coal from its abandoned mines on a revenue sharing basis. Moreover, Steel Authority of India Limited has signed a memorandum of understanding for getting 1.8 million tonnes of washed coking coal from BCCL washeries.

The coal ministry has also taken up an initiative to bundle setting up of washeries with linkage of coking coal. Under this initiative, steel companies can set up greenfield washeries or revamp old washeries of BCCL, which will be provided with linkage of coking coal.

CMPDIL on the other hand plays a key role in identifying coal reserves through drilling and seismic survey and also undertake research in non-conventional energy sources such as coal bed methane.

Prasad said that Coal India is on track to achieving the 780 million production target in FY24 and subsequent plan is to scale up to 850 MT in FY25 and 1 billion tonne in FY26. He also said that there is adequate coal available at power plants and Coal India pitheads to meet the demand.

The public sector miner has also planned to set up 3000 MW solar power capacity in the next 3 years with 380 MW expected in FY24.

Talcher Fertilizers Limited, a joint venture between Coal India, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited and Gail (India) Limited is also expected to come into operations in FY25, Prasad said.

Back in 2020, Coal India board had given its approval to set up a venture into the aluminium value chain (mining-refining-smelting). Prasad said that proposal has been dropped and the public sector miner is no longer pursuing that plan.