Coal production in April up 29% compared to last year, says government

The Union Ministry of Coal on Tuesday said coal production in the country increased 29 percent in April to 66.58 metric tonnes, compared to 51.62 MT in April 2021.

A coal ministry official said production in captive and other types of mines increased by 60 percent in the same period, while coal dispatch to power utilities went up by 18.15 percent.

The ministry update comes even as several states in India are grappling with a power crisis sparked by coal shortage, exacerbated by the rising demand for electricity because of the ongoing heatwave in large swathes of the country.

According to the coal ministry, Coal India Limited and Singareni Collieries Company Limited saw a growth of 27.64 percent and 9.59 percent, respectively.

Recently, the coal ministry said CIL has a coal stock of 56.7 MT at present. While the stock at Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) is at 4.3 MT, captive coal blocks have about 2.3 MT of stock.

The ministry also said a fall in import prices of coal has been observed since the end of October last year, adding that international prices are still at a high level.

"Of top 37 coal mines, 22 produced over 100 percent and another 10 produced over 80 percent," a coal ministry official said, adding that coal-based power generation saw a growth of 9.26 percent in April 2022 compared to April 2021, while the overall power generation this April was 11.75 percent higher than the power generated in April last year.