page_title: Coal in India
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Coal in India / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: Coal production in India, 1950-2012
context_page_description: Coal in India has been mined since 1774 and is now the second fastest mined in the world, producing 716 million metric tons in 2018. In 2017, India had 315.14 billion metric tons of coal. The estimated total reserves of lignite coal that month was 44.70 billion metric tons. Due to high demand and poor average quality, India imports coking coal to meet the requirements of its steel plants. India's coal imports have risen from 49.8 million metric tons in 2007–08 to 191 million metric tons in 2016–17. India's coal exports rose from 1.63 million metric tons in 2007–08 to 2.44 million metric tons in 2012–13, but subsequently declined to 1.77 million metric tons in 2016–17. Dhanbad city is the largest coal producing city. State-owned Coal India had a monopoly on coal mining between its nationalisation in 1973 and 2018.
  Coal-fired power plants have been criticised for breaking environmental laws, and phasing out coal would have short-term heath and environmental benefits greatly exceeding the costs.
context_section_description: India is the second largest producer of coal in the world, after China. The production of coal was 675.40 million metric tons (744.50 million short tons) in 2017–18, a growth of 2.66% over the previous year. The production of lignite was 46.26 million metric tons (50.99 million short tons) in 2017–18, a growth of 2.27% over the previous fiscal.
caption: Coal production in India, 1950–2012
exif: {}