Agrawal says India’s record coal production has impacted global price
Minister of Coal, Mines & Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi has told Coal India Ltd to start coal exports in the next 2-3 years, given a record production this year.
He has assured the country that even during the coming monsoon season there will be no shortage of coal, and the sector is fully prepared to meet the enhanced domestic demand of the fast-growing economy.
Addressing a high-level Conference & Exhibition on the theme “Underground Coal Mining – Way Forward for Sustainable Energy Security”, organized by Coal India Limited (CIL) in Delhi on 6 June, Joshi called on the industry to ensure safety in coal mines with utmost priority while focusing on stepped up production.
He called upon the coal sector to devise suitable action plans to meet the growing energy requirements of the country in coming years while noted the new initiatives and reforms undertaken by the Coal Ministry to enhance commercial coal mining.
He said pointed out that 87 coal blocks have been successfully auctioned under commercial auction and some of them have already started production.
Deliberation on new strategies to enhance coal production form underground mines is a step in the right direction.
The Minister released underground coal mining vision plan of CIL and inaugurated a special exhibition organized as part of the conference.
Meanwhile, CIL CMD Pramod Agrawal added that India’s record coal production has paved the way for declining coal price in the global market.
Domestic coal production was 7.10% higher year-on-year at 76.26 million tonne (MT) in May 2023.
The production was 71.21 MT coal during the same month in 2022, the Ministry said on 2 June 2023.
In his address to the conference, Coal Secretary Amrit Lal Meena underlined the importance of attracting more private sector firms into coal mining, and called for underground mining to be further promoted along with coking coal mission.
M Nagaraju, Additional Secretary and Nominated Authority, Coal Ministry, added that by 2035–40 India’s coal requirement can go up to two billion tonnes.
Introduction of new technology, attracting private sector, ensuring sustainability among others are important factors while focusing on underground mining, he said.
The objective of the conference is to focus on indigenous technology towards an Aatma Nirbhar Bharat in coal sector for sustainable coal production.
Achievement of these targets can be possible only through the concerted efforts & endeavours of every stakeholder, technology provider, equipment manufacturer and implementing agencies.
Therefore, the stakeholders play a very important role for strategizing future mining activities.
In this background, the conference provided a forum to promote advanced techno-scientific cooperation towards achieving the goal of the country.
The Conference became the right platform to the stakeholders to interact on latest technology, which will benefit Mining Communities as a whole. Fiinews.com
