Revival of abandoned coal mines begins

NEW DELHI: The work to revive 28 of 32 abandoned coal mines has started, while the remaining four are in the re-tendering stage, Union coal and mines minister G Kishan Reddy informed the Lok Sabha recently. According to the minister, production started in two of the revived mines during the 2025-26 financial year. The minister also informed Parliament that 133 coal mines have been auctioned over a period of five years, which are expected to generate annual revenue of Rs 38,710 crore with a capital investment of Rs 41,407 crore and provide employment to 373,199 persons.

In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Reddy said Coal India Limited, a public sector undertaking, was implementing the revival of certain legacy and non-operational underground mines through a revenue-sharing model with private partners. This model offers to re-open, salvage, rehabilitate, develop, and operate any suitable discontinued mine through a mine developer and operator for excavation and extraction of coal and delivery. The 28 revived mines have a combined capacity of 39.28 million tonnes per annum.




While the capacity of renewable energy sources in India has seen a sharp rise in the past few years, it has yet to meet the scale required to support the ever-growing energy consumption. Coal and lignite together contribute nearly three-fourths of the total electricity generation in India. However, it is projected to fall to 55% by 2030 and 27% by 2047. To meet the estimated electricity demand by the year 2031-32, India would need 283 gigawatts of installed capacity against the current 217.5 GW. The govt will need to set up an additional coal-based capacity of a minimum of 80 GW by 2031-32. It has set a raw coal production target for the year 2025-26 at 1,157 million tonnes, which is likely to go up to 1.5 billion tonnes by FY 2029-30.
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