As certain parts of the country move into a colder winter this year on account of La Niña, provisional government data points to higher monthly coal production. India’s coal production in November 2024 rose 7.39 per cent year-on-year to 90.8 million tonnes (MT). In contrast, last November saw 84.56MT.
The highest production growth was reported in the “Captives/Others” units, with a year-on-year jump of 39.13 per cent to 17.32MT.
Year-to-date production till November stood at a total of 628.37MT, up 6.26 per cent from the same period last year.
Out of the total coal produced, 85.52MT was despatched to various sectors in November. The power sector came on top, taking a major chunk of it—almost 71 per cent or 70.95MT of coal.
Much of it could also be attributed to a slight increase in coal-based power generation, which inched 0.57 per cent higher. Yet, it was good news for sustainable power sources, with monthly hydropower generation soaring 30.9 per cent to 9,491MW and power generated from renewable energy systems or RES (wind, solar, biomass, etc.) rose 16.3 per cent to 14,586MW for the month of November.
Last week, the Coal Ministry of India put 27 coal blocks on offer across various states in the 11th round of commercial coal mine auctions, launched by the union minister for coal and mines, G Kishan Reddy.
Out of the 27 on offer, 14 were fully explored and 13 were partially explored blocks.
The ministry, in its statement, said that the new non-coking coal blocks were expected to generate an annual revenue of around Rs 1,446 crore at peak capacity, and lead to over 19,000 jobs.