Projects to Augment Coal Production
Piyush Goyal, Minister of state for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy stated that the 7 subsidiary coal companies of Coal India (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) will be taking up projects to augment the coal production. According to Goyal CIL envisages taking up 118 projects whereas SCCL will be taking up 9 projects. The total capacity of CIL will be 353.87 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) during the 12th Five Year Plan and 13 million tonnes for SCCL.

According Goyal, the Report of the Working Group on Coal & Lignite for formulation of the 12th Plan (2012-17) indicated two scenarios for the production of coal during the plan period. As per the Optimistic Scenario, the production of coal was projected to reach 795 MTe by the end of the 12th Plan (2016-17) and as per the Business as Usual Scenario, the production was expected to reach 715 MTe by that year including 100 MTe from captive blocks.