(ET)
The government has finalised India’s coal production target for FY26 at 1.15 billion tonnes, marginally lower than the target set in November at 1.19 billion tonnes for the same period. It is higher than the total production of 1.05 billion tonnes recorded in FY25.
In its action plan for FY26, the coal ministry stated that it will provide coal linkages to consumers without any need of specific end use in addition to the present end use-based linkages.
This would require changes to the non-regulated sector auction policy of 2016, it said.
The ministry will also hold three auctions in FY26 for commercial mines in which it sees successful auction of 25 mines. Coal production and dispatch from commercial mines in the ongoing financial year is aimed at 203.4 million tonnes. Seven commercial coal mines are expected to start production in the ongoing financial year.
The coal ministry has planned to have ‘on-demand’ coal supply capacity to consumers by FY47 for which additional coal capacity is needed.
The ministry had set a target of opening 100 new mines with an intent to create an additional production capacity of 500 million tonnes per year by FY30. Of this, 13 mines were operationalized in FY25 with a capacity of 83 million tonnes.
For the target, the ministry has proposed to operationalize more than 20 new mines with an aggregate capacity of over 80 million tonnes per year in FY26, including coal public sector undertakings and commercial and captive mines.
