India has launched the auction process of 41 coal blocks for commercial mining. The mines will require an investment of around INR300bn (US$3.9bn) over the next five to seven years and should reach peak production of 225 Mt, accounting for 15% of the country's total coal output in 2025-2026. Four projects have been identified and could gasify around 100 Mt of coal by 2030 at a cost of INR200bn (US$2.6bn).
In 2019-2020, state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL), which accounts for around 80% of India's domestic coal production, missed its production target of 660 Mt due to the flooding of a key coal mine; the company's production dipped from 606 Mt in 2018-2019 to 602 Mt (8.8% below the target). CIL plans to reach 1 Gt by the fiscal year 2024. In January 2020, the government promulgated the Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020 that aims at attracting investors in the coal mining sector by removing restrictions on end-use and prior experience in coal auctions. According to the government, India's coal production is expected to reach 700 Mt in the current fiscal year (April 2020-March 2021), corresponding to a 16% annual increase. India currently imports around 235 Mt/year of coal, with around half of this amount tied to power plants or user plants and non-substitutable. The government aims at stopping most of substitutable coal imports and bets on the higher domestic production.
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