Coal mining activities by definition are commercial, but in India this has come to define the right of a coal miner to sell the products in open market.

Coal India registered a healthy 6.5 per cent growth in coal production to clock 54.30 million tonnes (MT) in February this year compared to 50.98 MT achieved in the corresponding period last year.

The coal sector remains the most inefficient and least open to private investment, despite coal being the country´s primary source of fuel, says Krrishan Singhania, Managing Partner, Singhania Associates.

In the early 1970s, the Government of India took over the management of coal mines in two tranches. The process kick-started with the nationalisation of coking coal mines in 1971-72, followed by non-coking coal mines the following year. With the enactment of the Coal Mines Act, 1973, all mines were nationalised.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has successfully commissioned another 600 MW coal-based thermal power plane in Telangana. ´The unit has been commissioned at the 2x600 MW Singareni Thermal Power Project (TPP) located in Adilabad district in Telangana.

The market for construction and mining equipment is poised for growth, says Devendra Kumar Vyas, CEO - Financial Services, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd.

Of all mining equipment globally, surface mining equipment enjoyed the highest market share, around 31 per cent, in 2015. Mineral processing equipment, underground mining equipment, mining drills and breakers, crushing, pulverising and screening equipment, and other mining equipment lagged behind.

Large-scale opencast projects have been identified by Coal India Ltd for achieving its 1 billion tonne target by FY 2020. CIL has planned to upgrade its coal mining technology to meet its objective. Use of surface miners, high wall miners, etc., will require skilled manpower for optimum utilisation and supervision of these heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM).

The movements in the global commodity markets have added to the intensity of the changes and dynamism of the demand-supply equilibrium in the coal sector.