Bhubaneswar: Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) has a reserve of about 35 million tonnes (MT) of coal to ensure that there will be no crisis of coal for power generation, MCL CMD Uday A Kaole said Saturday.
Addressing the media in Sambalpur, Kaole said MCL will start operation of the Subhadra coal mine, having a reserve of 25MT in the Talcher area of Angul district, by the end of the financial year 2025-26.
“We are also going to start operation of the Balabhadra coal mine – with a capacity of 10MT – by the end of the financial year 2029-30,” he said.
At present, MCL, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL), is operating 18 coal mines in Angul, Sundargarh and Jharsuguda districts, of which three are underground mines and the remaining 15 are opencast mines.
Among the coal mines, the public sector company has seven operational mines in Angul district, which include Jagannath, Bhubaneswari, Bharatpur, Hingula, Lingaraj, Kaniha and Talcher.
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Now, MCL is going to start exploration from Subhadra and Balabhadra mines, he said.
To maintain transparency in its mining activities, MCL has installed CCTVs in 98 per cent of its operational areas while the remaining 2 per cent will be done soon, the CMD said, adding, “We are also using artificial intelligence (AI) for real-time tracking of coal transportation vehicles which are GPS enabled.”
He further said, “MCL has a reserve of about 35MT of coal to ensure that there will be no crisis of coal for power generation.”
The company has produced 225MT of coal during 2024-25 with a growth of 9 per cent compared to its previous financial year.
The total coal dispatch was 210MT, which also registered a growth of 6 per cent, he said. The CMD said, “98 per cent of our total coal production is being done through eco-friendly surface mines, which is the highest in the country.”
The coal-producing company has targeted to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by FY29.
It has planned to set up several renewable energy projects, including solar, wind and pumped storage power plant projects in different parts of the state with an estimated investment of Rs 17,900 crore, another official of the company said.
Further, the company has set a target to produce 239MT of coal in FY26, which is expected to reach 300MT by the fiscal 2029-30, he said.
PNN