Domestic coal suppliers, including the state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) and privately-owned captive and commercial mines, have collectively delivered 500 million tonnes (MT) of coal in the current financial year, according to a statement from the Ministry of Coal.

For the fiscal year 2023-24, the Ministry set a target to produce and dispatch 1,012 MT of coal to consumers. Remarkably, the Ministry has already dispatched 500 MT of coal as of October 17, 2023.

The Ministry expects that the rate of coal production and dispatch will typically be higher in the second half of the year, indicating that the dispatch of coal is likely to exceed 1 billion tonnes during this fiscal year.

Out of the 500 MT of coal dispatched, 416.57 MT went to the power sector, while 84.77 MT was supplied to the non-regulated sector. The year-on-year growth in coal transport to the power sector is 7.27%, while the growth to the non-regulated sector is 38.02%. For comparison, 893.19 MT of coal were dispatched by the end of the last financial year.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) also reported a 6% increase in supplies to thermal power plants across the country, reaching 23.5 MT during the first half of October 2023, ahead of the festive season. CIL supplied nearly 319 MT to the country's coal-fired plants by October 15, marking a 12 MT increase in volume compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year (FY 2023).