Captive mines have been a mainstay of coal production, and their output has grown steadily. Production from captive mines rose from 167.44 MT in FY 2024-25 to 184 MT in FY 2025-26, a growth of 10.10%. Along with commercial mines, which produced ~26 MT, the captive and commercial segment together accounted for 210 MT in FY 2025-26 against 190.95 MT the previous year. Captive and Commercial mines account for about 21% of total domestic coal production, which stood at 1,039 MT in FY 2025-26 and has remained above one billion tonnes for the second year running.

The performance has carried into the current year. Captive mines produced 68.98 MT up to 10 September 2026, against 65.78 MT in the corresponding period of FY 2025-26. This is a growth of about 5%, or an additional 3.2 MT, and it comes on a base that was itself 10.12% higher than the year before it. The gain has been recorded in the first five months of the year, which include the monsoon, when mining and evacuation are at their most difficult. Dispatch from captive mines has also been better than previous year. Captive mines dispatched 75.68 MT against 71.43 MT last year, a growth of 5.94% and an increase of 4.25 MT.

Provisional figures indicate the pace picking up further as the monsoon begins to recede. In the ten days between 01 September and 10 September 2026, captive mines produced 4.12 MT and dispatched 4.21 MT.

New capacity is being added steadily to this base. Nine captive & commercial mines are expected to commence production during FY 2026-27, with a combined peak rated capacity of 20.67 MT. Three of these, with peak capacity of 7.51 MT, have already started production during the current year. The remaining six, are expected to commence production soon during the year.

On this footing, production from captive mines is expected to cross 190 MT in FY 2026-27. Together with commercial mines, the two segments are expected to exceed 228 MT during the current financial year.

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Shuhaib T

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