<span style="color: #222222;">The Coal Ministry has reviewed the production of coal with allocatees of captive coal blocks whose coal blocks have either commenced production or are likely to commence production during the financial year 2022-23.<br />''<br />''A meeting in this regard was chaired by Coal Secretary Dr. Anil Kumar Jain. It was appreciated that coal production from captive coal blocks during 2021-22 was 85 Million Tonnes, an increase of around 35 percent over 63 MTs produced during the previous year 2020-21.<br />''<br />''The enhanced coal production helped in shortening the demand-supply gap in the domestic market.<br />''<br />''The Ministry has taken consistent initiatives to increase the production of coal from captive mines like various amendments in-laws and rules liberalizing the coal sector, regular review meetings with project proponents and State Governments for operationalization of coal mines.<br />''<br />''Presently, 106 coal blocks have been allocated by the Nominated Authority of the Ministry and mine opening permissions have been received for 47 coal blocks. It is expected to increase to 60 coal blocks during fiscal 2022-23.<br />''<br />''During the meeting, Dr. Jain stated that the coal block allocatees have a golden opportunity for increasing coal production as the price of imported coal is very high at the moment and the demand of thermal coal will increase due to increase in electricity demand of the country. </span><br />