Mr Piyush Goyal, Union Minister, said that importing coal is "unjustified" at a time when the country is sitting on reserves totalling 300 billion tonne.

Mr Goyal said that "When the country is sitting on a huge coal reserve, to import it is unjustified. The production of coal has risen from 432 million tonne to 460 million tonne and will cross 493 million tonne this year, which will be an increase of over 30 million tonne."

He said that the BJP-led government at Centre has accorded a top priority to coal and generation of power and that all-out efforts are being made to supply coal to electricity generating units across the country.

He added that "The government is also giving mines to states to meet the requirement," adding the production of coal by the Coal India Limited has gone up by seven% since the BJP government came to power last year.

Mr Goyal hailed Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), a CIL subsidiary, for pulling the loss-making company out of red and producing 38 million tonne of coal. WCL will open a new mine every month.

He said that he was surprised to know that around eight crore housewives in the country burn coal to cook food.

Earlier, he inaugurated Penganga open cast mine at Wani in neighbouring Chandrapur district. The mine has the production capacity of four million tonne. Mr Goyal also dedicated to nation Makardhokra Open Cast and Bhangegaon Open Cast mines having capacity of 2 million tonne and one million tonne, respectively.

However, Union Ministers Mr Nitin Gadkari and Mr Hansraj Ahir along with Maharashtra CM Mr Devendra Fadnavis, Finance Minister Mr Sudhir Mungantiwar and Power Minister Mr Chandrashekhar Bawankule were present on the occasion.

Source:coal.steelguru.com