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State-run Coal India today started production at its 12 million tonne per annum (MTPA) coal mine in Jharkhand, a move that may increase supply to fuel-starved power plants.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had yesterday announced in the Budget that comprehensive measures for enhancing domestic coal production were being put in place.
"After the Budget was tabled yesterday, we want to give message that we are implementing the announcements and these are not just limited to papers. We will expedite matters. In this series we dedicated Amarpali coal mine to nation today," Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal said.
The Jharkhand project is said to be one of the major mining projects in the recent few years.
The Amrapali opencast coal mine of Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a Coal India subsidiary, is located in Chatra district of Jharkhand. It has a 'mineable' reserves of 291 million tonnes.
CCL took almost 10 years to begin mining coal from the Amarpali coal mine mainly due to delays in land acquisition and in the absence of rail line to connect the mining project.
The coal produced from the mine will be evacuated through Tori-Shivpur railway line which, however, is yet to be completed.
The Minister requested Members of Parliament from Jharkhand, who were present on the occasion, to help CCL get necessary clearances from the state government/ district authorities in the matter relating to early completion of the crucial line and land authentication of villagers.
While stating that power generation is dependent upon the coal production, the Minister sought the support of the people of all mining areas to realise the government's commitment to provide 24-hour power to all.
Speaking on the occasion, Coal Secretary S K Srivastava , said: "We...Are committed to maximise coal production and coal availability for the economy especially the power sector."
The government will take all measures to increase production and productivity of coal, he added.
Nearly half of the country's coal-fired power plants had only enough stocks to last a week or less, Goyal had said on July 7.
The Amrapali mine is expected to produce 3 million tonnes this fiscal, during which Central Coalfields will increase production by 10 per cent to 55 million tonnes.
Coal India, which accounts for 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, missed it output target of 482 million tonnes in the last fiscal as it produced 462 million tonnes of coal.
