The Indian state-owned coal mining company Coal India Ltd (CIL) has received approvals for 17 coal mining projects that will add 150 Mt of coal in the next five years and will increase CIL's washing capacity by 25 Mt/year. According to the Ministry of Coal, it will allow CIL to reach its target of 1 Gt of coal production by 2023-2024 (April 2023-March 2024). The group intends to produce 660 Mt of coal in 2019-2020 (corresponding to 82% of the total domestic coal production) and 750 Mt of coal in 2020-2021.
In November 2019, Coal India decided to advance its coal production target of 1 Gt/year by two years, from 2026 to 2024. The group had initially set this target for 2020 but had to postpone it to 2026 in September 2018, citing changes in India's carbon emission targets, slow industrial growth, changing energy mix, environmental difficulties and land acquisition challenges. This higher coal output is aimed at meeting rising power demand. The same month, CIL presented a plan to develop 55 new coal mines with a combined capacity of 92 Mt/year and to expand 193 existing mines with a combined capacity of around 310 Mt/year in the next five years. These projects are expected to boost coal production in India, which reached 725 Mt in 2018.