The Union coal ministry is expecting a 15 per cent growth in coking coal production in 2025-25 at 77 million tonnes, crossing the half-way mark to the 140 million tonnes goal by 2030.

The domestic raw coking coal production in 2023-24 was 66.82 million tonnes.

India is a major importer of coking coal, which is required by the steel industry to meet the gap between their own requirement and indigenous availability. Its share in the overall coal imports has been consistently above 20 per cent in the last 10 years.

In a bid to cut down on imports, the government has undertaken a mission to step up domestic availability of coking coal, including setting a goal for domestic production.

Of the 140 million tonnes coking coal production target by FY30, Coal India is expecting to produce 105 MT, which is a significant increase from 60.43 MT during FY24.

Among the steps taken by the ministry to step up coking coal production is modernisation and renovation of existing aging washeries of Coal India subsidiaries — Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) and Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) which has surpassed designed lifespan for its optimal utilisation.

The government is also looking at monetisation of old washeries of BCCL for operational efficiency through the washery-developer-cum-operator route.

The coal ministry has also auctioned 14 coking coal blocks to the private sector.

These blocks are expected to start production by 2028-29. Further, the governmentis also encouraging the supply of coal to the steel sector through the Non-Regulated Sector (NRS) linkage auction route.

Additionally, three new coking coal washeries by BCCL (cumulative capacity of 7 MTY) and five new by CCL (cumulative capacity of 14.5 MTY) are planned. Of these, two are under construction.

Logistics focus

The coal ministry has set a goal to produce 1.3 billion tonnes of domestic coal by FY27 and 1.5 billion tonnes by FY30 and logistics would play a crucial role in increasing the offtake of coal.

“In view of this, 102 FMC (first mile connectivity) projects costing nearly ₹30,000 crore with a capacity of 1040 MTPA are planned. Currently, 37 projects with a capacity of 360 MTPA have been commissioned. The remaining 66 projects are scheduled to be commissioned by FY28,” the coal ministry said in a statement.

Moreover, an additional wagon requirement of 100,000 has been projected to meet the coal evacuation requirement, keeping in view the goal of 86 per cent rail evacuation of coal by FY30.