Import of coal saw a decline of 6.37 per cent to 191.95 million tonnes (MT) in 2016-17 on higher production by CIL that saw the country move to a regime of surplus coal.
Comparatively, in the previous fiscal, coal imports stood at 203.95 MT, as per official data by the government. As against the demand of 884.87 MT of coal, the total domestic production stood at 659.27 MT, it said.
The Centre has announced plans to boost CIL’s annual production to the level of 1 billion tonnes by 2019 to meet the growing fuel demand.