Western Coalfields to open 36 mines in 36 months

NEW DELHI: State-run monopoly miner Coal India’s subsidiary Western Coalfields said it will open 36 coal mining projects in the next 36 months to increase coal output to 100 million tonnes.

The subsidiary targets to open 20 greenfield projects, 11 expansion projects and five underground mines that will be converted into opencast projects.

WCL recently turned around from being a loss-making unit to a profit-making firm. The company has opened 10 mines in the past 10 months.

It had started registering negative growth after 2009-10 from the production level of 45.74 million tonnes.