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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026

 

By Astha Oriel

 

NEW DELHI – The Ministry of Coal aims to commercially operationalise 60 more mines by financial year 2029-30 (Apr-Mar) out of the 147 coal mines auctioned so far, a senior ministry official told Informist Thursday. "So we are expecting around 60 more mines to be operationalised by 2030. So, taking the total coal, we are at 150 mines. So that's what our plan is," the official said. "But with all the measures being taken by the Ministry of Coal and all other parallel ministries, we may have more number of mines also," the official added. The official, however, did not disclose the production target for these mines. 
 

For FY27, the ministry aims to commercially operationalise 20 coal mines, of which 14 will be outside Coal India Ltd., the official said. "FY27, we do have a target of 20 mines all put together, including Coal India. But other than Coal India, it is 14 mines," the official said.

 

The ministry Monday said a total of 147 coal mines have been auctioned so far, with 44 new companies winning coal mines. Since 2020, 147 coal blocks have been auctioned across nine states, which are projected to generate about INR 475 billion in annual revenues, INR 550 billion in capital investment, and 490,000 jobs, the ministry said in a release. In FY26, revenues from upfront and premium payments from allocated commercial mines was about INR 30.9 billion, the ministry said.

 

The ministry launched the 16th round of commercial auction of coal mines Thursday. The auction will offer fully explored and partially explored coal blocks, the ministry said. 

 

India, which holds the world's fifth-largest coal reserves, produced 1.04 billion tonnes in the calendar year 2025, according to coal ministry data. Coal-fired power accounts for about 72% of the country's total electricity generation. The country has a total estimated coal resource of about 401 billion tonnes as of April 2025 and coal demand is expected to increase to about 1.5 billion tonnes by 2030, according to the government.  End

 

Edited by Shubhayan Bhattacharya

 

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