Govt expects to achieve 1.5 bn tonne of coal output by 2022

Of the 1.5 billion tonne, 1 billion tonne would be contributed by Coal India and the rest by private producers and Singareni Collieries, the official said.

Earlier, the government had announced to achieve a coal output of 1.5 billion tonne by 2019-20.

The coal ministry had set the target of 1 billion tonne by 2019-20 for state-run miner Coal India to cut imports and increase availability of the dry fuel to bolster growth.

"We hope that by 2022 the domestic coal production should be around 1.5 billion tonnes of which about a billion tonne will be (produced by) Coal India (CIL), 0.4 billion tonnes would be (produced by) private producers...and a small portion will be done by Singareni Collieries," the secretary said.

The world's largest coal miner Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production.

"This may further increase till 2030 to about close to 2 billion tonnes if we have some faith is CCU (carbon capture and utilisation) technology," he said.

India being a country which believes in international trade, not all imports can be stopped, he said, adding that but the government's endeavour is to reduce the import of thermal coal specially for inland power plants.