April-November coal output grows 1.6% to 391.10 Mte

The government released the coal production rate during April to November, 2016 on Thursday. As per the record, the production reaches 391.10 Mte, 1.6% overall growth till November.  

The Government has taken several steps to further push the progress made by Coal Ministry in the last year. 

In line with the Coal mines auctions of 2015, the auction and allotment proceeds from 83 coal mines allocated so far and estimated at more than Rs 3.95 lakh crore over the life of the mine/lease period, which shall be devolving entirely to the coal bearing States. The actual revenue generated from these coal mines up to Oct’16 is 2,779 crore (excluding Royalty, Cess and Taxes). 

The benefit to consumers in terms of reduction of electricity tariff from auction of 9 coal blocks to ‘Power’ Sector is likely to be about Rs. 69,310.97 crore. 

The production of raw coal in the country during April-November of 2016-17 was 391.10 Mte compared to 385.11 Mte during the corresponding period of previous year. The overall growth in Coal production during April- November 2016 was 1.6%. Lignite mining capacity of NLCIL is 30.6 Million Tonnes per annum as on 30.11.2016.

The company has also enhanced its power generating capacity from 4275.50 MW (as on March 2016) to 4293.50 MW inclusive of 10 MW Solar and 43.50 MW wind power. The Coal Ministry has given special focus to decrease coal imports in the country. Government has saved about Rs 20,000 crore in the year 2015-16 and about Rs.4,844 crore in the first four months of the current year.

Keeping view in the digitization, the ministry has also fully implemented e-office application in October 2016 and the entire file work in the Ministry is now being done electronically. 

The ministry claims that digitization process has brought ‘transparency’ and ‘efficiency’ in the working as it would facilitate quick processing and instant movement of files thus enabling seamless and fast decision making.