Building a Better India – Part 8: Boosting coal production  

June 18, 2014

Over the past five years, Coal India\'s profit jumped 735% to Rs17,356 crore by just raising coal prices while employee expenses grew almost double. However, between the same period, its coal production increased by just 5%

Dalbir Chhibbar

Coal shortages have been caused mainly due to the inefficient and monopolistic Coal India Ltd (CIL), and road blocks created by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in the development of new coal mines. Any bottlenecks in coal production has a cascading effect on all major industrial and household sectors in India, including power generation. CIL was formed upon nationalisation of coal mines with the noble purpose of increasing coal production, to provide better amenities and safety to coal miners and to provide coal to Indian industrial consumers at a reasonable price. It has largely failed in its objectives. Shockingly while CIL’s production has remained near stagnant for last five years it’s employee expenses have doubled to Rs27,320 crore.

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