The government today said that several measures including upgradation of technology and mining safety have been taken to ensure increased coal production the country. Coal Minister Piyush Goel said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his recent Australia visit, also discussed with his Australian counterpart about technological upgradation of mining in India. The Minister was replying to supplementaries during the question hour in the Lok Sabha today. Mr.Goel also said that Coal India is not capable to supply sufficient coal as per requirement of different sectors. He said, steps have been taken to increase coal production under 150 to 200 million tonne in next couple of years.

He said, completion of three rail links in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha is on government priority and work in Chhattisgarh is progressing satisfactorily. Mr. Goel assured the House that process of reallocation of coal blocks will be done in a transparent manner and e-auction of cancelled coal blocks will be completed by the end of March, 31 next year. The Minister also said that the revenue generated from the auction will go to those states where coal blocks are located. Mr.Goel also said, government will ensure that coal supply to the captive sector on reasonable rates and non-captive sectors will purchase coal on market rates. He said, the government will not intervene in the working of Investigating agency probing into the alleged irregularities in the coal block allocation case.