Centre holds stakeholders' consultation to increase domestic coal production

New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) The Centre on Tuesday said that a high-level stakeholder consultation on increasing the domestic coal output was held amid escalating tensions in West Asia threatening global energy supplies.
    Senior government officials and major coal sector players deliberated on strategies to ramp up domestic coal production, speed up mine development and operations, bolstering India's energy security, a statement said.
    Addressing the gathering, Union Minister of Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy stressed that India must go beyond incremental reforms to achieve the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
    He underscored the need for continuous and comprehensive reforms across the entire coal value chain, including exploration, auctions, clearances, operations, financing with special focus on scientific mine closure. He stressed that bottlenecks must be systematically removed to enhance production, improve supply efficiency and ensure seamless functioning from mine development to closure.
    He stressed the need to promote coal gasification, leveraging India's abundant coal reserves, and noted that private sector participation in coal production is expected to increase significantly in the coming years.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)