Govt working on incentivizing heavy mining equipment manufacturing | Mint

The Centre is working on a plan to incentivize local manufacturing of heavy equipment for mining, said a top government official.

Speaking at the curtain-raiser for the International Mining Equipment & Minerals Exhibition (IME) 2025, Vikram Dev Dutt, secretary to the Union ministry of coal said the ministry is working with state-run mining major Coal India Ltd on contours for an incentive scheme.

“There is an element of import dependence, especially in the import of heavy equipment. Although there are segments and elements where we have fairly good indigenous manufacturing capability. We are actively working in close collaboration with Coal India to see how the indigenous manufacturing system for machinery could be incentivized,” he said.

The impetus for local manufacturing of heavy mining equipment comes at a time when local production of coal has gained momentum, reaching a record 1 billion tonne output in 2024-25 to meet the rising power demand.

Coal India imports high-capacity equipment, including electric rope shovels, hydraulic shovels, dumpers, crawler dozers, drills, motor graders, front-end loaders, and wheel dozers.

An interdisciplinary high-level committee formed by the government in 2023 recommended standardizing equipment to boost domestic manufacturing for captive and commercial mine operators, outsourcing contractors, and departmental equipment. 

It also recommended that tender clauses should promote the use of indigenous equipment to support the ‘Make in India’ mission.

This also coincides with the emphasis on local production of critical minerals like lithium, cobalt and nickel, required in the manufacturing of batteries along with their use in diverse strategic areas like defence and telecommunication.

Addressing the media, the coal secretary also said in a bid to lower the import dependence of thermal coal, efforts are being made to blend domestic coal to some extent in imported coal-based plants.

He said the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is working on a technical evaluation and based on there would be further consideration on what quantum of imported coal can be replaced with domestic coal at ICB plants.

The coal ministry has been stressing on these ICB plants to change their technical specifications in order to use more of domestic coal as the local production of the commodity has increased in the past few years.

There are 17 imported coal-based plants in India with a cumulative power generation capacity of nearly 18 gigawatts. Their total daily coal requirement stands at 184,100 tonnes.

Highlighting the growth in coal production, Dutt reiterated the government’s commitment to increase coal production by about 42% to 1.53 billion tonnes in 2030-31 from 1.08 million tonnes recorded in 2024-25.