State-owned Coal India Limited plans to close 37 mines in fiscal 2017-2018, running from April to March, the company said Friday.
An action plan has been prepared by CIL subsidiaries to shut nonviable underground mines, CIL said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
A substantial number of mines had not been able to cover even workers salary, the coal ministry said at a meeting with CIL and its subsidiaries. It directed all seven subsidiaries of CIL to carry out a detailed study and list the nonviable mines.
CIL planned to produce around 1 billion mt of coal by 2019-2020, of which 52 million mt would come from underground mines, the coal ministry said earlier this year.
A number of underground mines have been converted into opencast mines because of depletion of reserves, economic non-viability and for safety reasons.
The number of underground mines fell to 207 as on April 1, 2016 from 270 on April 1, 2013, while the number of opencast and mixed mines has gone up to 176 and 30 respectively in 2016 from 169 and 23 in 2013.
