The country will produce 810 million tonnes (MT) of coal in the current fiscal for which the targets for Coal India Limited, Singareni Collieries Co. Ltd and captive coal mines and others have been set as 660 MT, 67 MT and 83 MT, respectively. The government has planned exploration of 37 coal blocks and 10 lignite blocks along with the drilling of 121 coal blocks and one lignite block in the current fiscal in addition to exploration and drilling of coal blocks allocated to state-run Coal India Ltd (CIL), Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi, Minister of Coal & Mines informed the recently concluded winter session of Parliament. The minister also informed the upper house that a fund of Rs 9.37 billion has been allocated for exploration and drilling of Non-CIL blocks in coal and lignite out of which Rs 1.2 billion will be spent on regional exploration and remaining 8.17 billion on detailed drilling.
