India's coal imports decline by 12% in April-August 2021

11 Nov 2021 CW Team

Total coal imports in India have dropped by 12% year-on-year (YoY) to 94.15 million tonnes (mt) during April-August 2021 due to reduced imports of non-coking coal.

The Ministry of Coal said that it had caused financial savings in the country as coal prices are sharply increasing in the international market.

According to a statement, following reduced imports of non-coking coal in 2021, the total imports of coal has reduced to 94.15 mt from April to August, compared to 107.01 mt in 2019-20.

The imports of non-coking coal of all varieties have reduced by 16.09% to 70.85 mt in April-August of FY22, over the same period in FY 2019-22.

India has imported 84.44 mt of different varieties of non-coking coal during the same period in FY 2019-20.

During the first five months of FY 2021-22, imports of all varieties of non-coking coal had reduced to 70.85 mt, compared to 84.44 mt in the same period in FY 2019-20, witnessing a decline of about 16.09%.

In FY 2021-22, the imports of low calorific value non-coking coal dropped by 47% to 15.24 mt from 28.69 mt during the same period in FY 2019-20.

India has been importing coal to fill the gap between the requirement and domestic production of coal. Its dependence on imports for coking coal is mostly used in the steel industry, now predominantly due to limited coal production.

However, the total domestic dispatch of coal has increased by 9.44% to 317.69 mt in FY22, compared to 290.28 mt in the last fiscal year. This growth was achieved despite unprecedented rain in several mining zones. The government and Coal India Limited (CIL) are continuing their efforts to increase the domestic production of coal.

Image Source

Also read: Centre enables 50% sale of coal from captive mines

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..