The Government of India has notified coking coal as a Critical and Strategic Mineral under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act). Aiming in cutting India’s import dependency and strengthen the domestic steel supply chain, this move has been taken.
Estimated at around 37.37 billion tonnes of coking coal resources, located in Jharkhand, followed by Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, India continues to rely majorly on imports, rising from 51.20 million tonnes in 2020–21 to 57.58 million tonnes in 2024–25.
To address this dependence, the Central Government has announced this decision that gives coking coal a special status under the law, which will give easier mining clearances and strengthen supply-chain resilience for the steel sector.
This will be a very significant step, which will reduce the country’s coking coal dependency on imports, thus making it self-reliant, and reducing foreign exchange outgo.
