Coal India Ltd (CIL) will close down 53 of its 174 underground (UG) mines this fiscal, shutting those that are either economically unviable or pose safety issues. The company had shut 43 such mines in the last fiscal.

The company has a total of 369 mines, including 177 open-cast, 18 mixed and 174 UG. The production from UG mines has slid consistently, and in 2017-18, stood at 30 million tonnes, or five per cent of CIL’s total production.

CIL Chairman Anil Kumar Jha said the miner had appointed the Indian School of Mines (ISM) to study the rationalisation of its underground mines.

“We inherited around 700 underground mines at the time of nationalisation. Now we are trying to rationalise mines that are very small and are not financially viable,” Jha told newspersons after the company’s annual general meeting here on Wednesday.

As a part of the rationalisation exercise, CIL would consider amalgamating 3-4 mines into a larger outfit or convert them into open-cast mines wherever possible, apart from closing down those that are ‘highly unproductive’, financially unviable and also pose ‘safety concerns’.

The company would wait for ISM’s suggestions before proceeding further. “We expect them to give us the report within the next six months,” Jha said.

CIL is looking to achieve an ‘aspirational’ production target of 652 million tonne (mt) in 2018-19, a 15 per cent rise over 567.36 mt registered in FY18.

Coal supply to the power sector is estimated to be close to 525 mt this fiscal, nearly 16 per cent higher than 454 mt in FY18.

Talking about stepping up its growth rate to meet production targets, Jha said four coal mining projects with an ultimate capacity of 24.6 mt a year, and entailing an investment of ₹4,155 crore had been approved by the CIL board.

“A total of 11 coal blocks have been allotted to Eastern Coalfields, Bharat Coking Coal and Western Coalfields put together. These new blocks will help these subsidiaries produce more than 100 mt of coal per annum in the near future,” he said.

Related Topics