Coal India

Coal India Limited, together with its subsidiaries, produces and market coal and coal products in India. The company offers coking coal primarily for use in steel making and metallurgical industries, and for hard coke manufacturing; and semi coking coal that is used as blend-able coal in steel making, merchant coke manufacturing, and other metallurgical industries. It also provides non-coking coal that is used as thermal grade coal for power generation, as well as for cement, fertilizer, glass, ceramic, paper, chemical, and brick manufacturing, and other heating purposes. In addition, it offers beneficiated and washed non-coking coal for use in power generation; beneficiated non-coking coal for use in cement, sponge iron, and other industrial plants; and middling products for power generation and by domestic fuel plants, brick manufacturing units, cement plants, industrial plants, etc. Further, the company provides rejects that are used for fluidized bed combustion boilers for power generation, road repairs, briquette making, land filling, etc. The company was incorporated in 1973 and is headquartered in Kolkata, India.

Coal mining in India had primarily been a private sector enterprise. This changed in September 1956 when the Government of India established its own coal company National Coal Development Corporation . Collieries run by the Railways formed the nucleus of NCDC. This was to fulfill the fast growing energy requirements in the country to support rapid industrialization taking place through Five-Year Plans of the Government. In the same year, Singareni Colliery Company, which was operating in Andhra Pradesh since 1920, was also brought under the Government control when the Central Government and state Government of Andhra Pradesh acquired 45% and 55% shares respectively.

In 1971, the Government of India nationalized all the 214 coking-coal mines and 12 coke-ovens running in the private sector, excluding those held by TISCO and IISCO for their captive use. On 1 January 1972, a new Government company Bharat Coking Coal Limited was formed to take control of these nationalized mines and coke-ovens. On 30 January 1973, all the remaining 711 non-coking coalmines of the country in private sector were also nationalized. 184 of these mines were handed over to BCCL, and remaining 527 were handed over to a newly opened department Coal Mines Authority. 4 months later, on 14 June 1973, this department was converted into a separate Government company CMAL. NCDC, earlier formed in 1957, was merged with CMAL, and 45% share-holding of Central Government in Singareni Collieries Company Ltd was also handed over to CMAL. CMAL started functioning with its 4 divisions, viz, Eastern Coalfields, Central Coalfields, Western Coalfields, and Central Mine Planning and Design Institute.

By 1973, all coking coalmines were under BCCL, which was functioning as a subsidiary of Steel Authority of India under Department of Steel of the Ministry of Steel and Mines; and all non-coking coalmines were under CMAL, which was under Department of Mines of the Ministry of Steel and Mines. For better control, both BCCL and CMAL were brought on 11 October 1974 under the Department of Coal of the newly formed Ministry of Energy.

On 1 November 1975, a new public-sector company Coal India Limited was formed to enable better organizational and operational efficiency in coal sector. All the 4 Divisions of CMAL were given the company status, and were brought under CIL along with BCCL. 45% share-holding of the CMAL in Singareni Collieries Company was also transferred to CIL, and CMAL was closed.

Thus, CIL started functioning in 1975 with 5 subsidiary companies under it. These were Bharat Coking Coal Limited , Eastern Coalfields Limited , Central Coalfields Limited , Western Coalfields Limited , and Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited . In due course of time, 3 more companies were formed under CIL by carving out certain areas of CCL and WCL. These were Northern Coalfields Limited , South-Eastern Coalfields Limited , and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited .

Pursuant to the Fuel Policy of 1974, CIL also started the construction of India's First Low Temperature Carbonisation Plant at Dankuni in the late 1970s. It was renamed as Dankuni Coal Complex, and is one of the only operational Coal gas plant of this kind in the world. Dankuni Coal Complex has been incurring heavy loss due to the Greater Calcutta Gas Supply Company giving non-remunerative price and fixing them unilaterally. Coal India is planning to venture into Coal-to-Methanol technology at the existing Plant.

In October 2010, the Government of India made an initial public offering of 10% of the equity shares of CIL to public at an offer price of ?245 per share . The IPO was oversubscribed by 14.17 times. Against an IPO issue size of ?15,500 crore it received bids for ?2.4 lakh crore making it the second highest collections in any IPO in India. On the first day of its listing on the stock market, its shares soared 40% higher than IPO price. With the listing, CIL became the fourth most valued company on the Indian stock exchanges with a market value of ?2.16 lakh crore . CIL was included in the 30-member BSE SENSEX on 8 August 2011.

On 30 January 2015, in an offer for sale , Government of India sold a further 10% stake in CIL. Priced at ?358 per share, the sale fetched the government ?22,557.63 crore , making it the largest ever equity offering in the Indian share market.

Coal India Limited aims to produce and market coal and coal products in efficiently planned environment with efficiency and economics while providing a fair reputation for safety, protection and quality.

Commitment of providing energy security to the country, achieving environment and socially sustainable development through best practices from mine to market, emerge as a global company in the primary energy sector.