India to stop thermal coal imports from 2024: mines minister
India’s Economic Times has reported that India intends to stop importing thermal coal from financial year 2023–24. Coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi said recently that ideas to transform Coal India into an integrated energy company by allowing it to set up pit-head thermal power stations have also been mooted at a brainstorming session in Gujarat. The intention is that India will upgrade its own ability to mine coal locally, and will move further into renewables.
In Australia, this has obvious implications for the much-politicised (and questionable) investment in the Adani Carmichael Mine in Queensland, which ostensibly is intended to export coal to India.
“It was also proposed that Coal India could generate 5 GW of solar power by 2023–24 and could diversify into coal gasification with a target of 50 million tonnes by 2030, enabling a sustainable energy mix for the country,” an official statement said. “All these ideas will be deliberated, studied and examined for their feasibility in detail and, based on that, they shall be implemented.”
Joshi said various ways and means were discussed with key stakeholders to achieve one billion tonne coal production target by Coal India by 2023–24. The ministry will coordinate with Indian Railways and the shipping ministry and enable Coal India, captive and commercial miners to excavate more coal by 2030, he said.
Joshi chaired ‘Chintan Shivir’, a two-day brainstorming session to find a way forward for the coal sector in Kevadia, Gujarat.
“The Shivir has engaged the participants in contemplating and deliberating to think out of the box to overcome various bottlenecks and provide innovative solutions for the Indian coal sector,” he said.
The minister also stated that drilling agencies like CMPDI and GSI should benchmark their operations to global standards by digitalising their databases. This, he added, will enable better utilisation in years to come.
The two-day Shivir evolved strategies for sustainable mining, environmental conservation, use of clean coal technologies and extending a helping hand to all stakeholders in and around coal mining areas to coexist in a mutually sustainable manner.
So far Adani has made no official statement on the subject of India withdrawing from thermal coal imports.
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