Coal India (CIL) the state-owned coal mining corporate came into being in November 1975. With a modest production of 79 Million Tonnes (MTs) at the year of its inception, CIL currently is the single largest coal producer in the world and one of the largest corporate employer. The company has several training Institutes and many Vocational Training Centres. Indian Institute of Coal Management (IICM) as a state-of-the-art Management Training ‘Centre of Excellence’ – the largest Corporate Training Institute in India - operates under CIL and conducts multi-disciplinary programmes. CIL is a Maharatna company - a privileged status conferred by the Government of India to select state-owned enterprises in order to empower them to expand their operations and emerge as global giants. 

The company is actively pursuing a diversification strategy to reduce its dependence on coal and transition towards a more sustainable energy future. This involves diversifying into renewable energy by establishing coal based-thermal and pump storage projects, solar & wind energy generation projects, critical minerals, underground coal gasification etc. The integration with renewables is a crucial step towards achieving a sustainable energy future.

Business area of the company

The company along with its subsidiaries is primarily involved in the mining and production of Coal. The major consumers of the company are the power and steel sectors. Consumers from other sectors include cement, fertilizers, brick kilns, etc. The company is currently executing a variety of projects, ranging from mining, washery, evacuation projects, etc. In order to ensure smooth implementation of such projects, it is continuously monitoring the ongoing progress through a number of sophisticated project management mechanisms.

Products and Services

Coking coal: These coals, when heated in the absence of air, form coherent beads, free from volatiles, with strong and porous mass, called coke. 

• These have coking properties 
• Mainly used in steel making and metallurgical industries 
• Also used for hard coke manufacturing

Semi coking coal: These coals, when heated in the absence of air, form coherent beads not strong enough to be directly fed into the blast furnace. Such coals are blended with coking coal in adequate proportion to make coke.

• These have comparatively less coking properties than coking coal
• Mainly used as blend-able coal in steel making, merchant coke manufacturing and other metallurgical industries

Non-coking coal: These are coals without coking properties.

• Mainly used as thermal grade coal for power generation
• Also used for cement, fertilizer, glass, ceramic, paper, chemical and brick manufacturing, and for other heating purposes

Washed and beneficiated coal: These coals have undergone the process of coal washing or coal beneficiation, resulting in value addition of coal due to reduction in ash percentage.

• Used in manufacturing of hard coke for steel making
• Beneficiated and washed non-coking coal is used mainly for power generation
• Beneficiated non-coking coal is used by cement, sponge iron and other industrial plants

Middlings: Middlings are by-products of the three stage coal washing / beneficiation process, as a fraction of feed raw coal.

• Used for power generation
• Also used by domestic fuel plants, brick manufacturing units, cement plants, industrial plants, etc.

Rejects: Rejects are the products of coal beneficiation process after separation of cleans and / or middlings, as a fraction of feed raw coal.

• Used for Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC) Boilers for power generation, road repairs, briquette (domestic fuel) making, land filling, etc.

CIL coke / LTC coke: CIL Coke / LTC Coke is a smokeless, environment friendly product of the Dankuni Coal Complex, obtained through low temperature carbonisation.

• Used in furnaces and kilns of industrial units
• Also used as domestic fuel by halwais, hotels, etc.

Coal fines / coke fines: These are the screened fractions of feed raw coal and LTC coke / CIL Coke respectively, obtained from the Dankuni Coal Complex and other coke oven plants.

• Used in industrial furnaces as well as for domestic purposes
• Tar / heavy oil / light oil / soft pitch: These are products from Dankuni Coal Complex using low temperature carbonisation of non-coking coal in vertical retorts.
• Used in furnaces and boilers of industrial plants as well as power houses, oil, dye, pharmaceutical industries, etc.

Awards

2006-07:

• Conferred with the ‘Enterprise Excellence Award 2007’ by the Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering.
  
• Award of ‘Mini Ratna’ status by the Department of Public Enterprises, GoI, to the Company and to MCL, NCL, SECL and WCL.

2007-08:

• Award of ‘Mini Ratna’ status by the Department of Public Enterprises, GoI, to CCL

2008-09:

• Conferred with the ‘SCOPE Gold Trophy 2007-08 for excellence and outstanding contribution to the Public Sector Management’
  
• Conferred with the ‘World’s Largest Coal Producing Company’ Award at the first Dalal Street Investment Journal PSU Awards, 2009.
  
• Ranked among the top five finalists in the 11th Anniversary of Platts Global Energy Awards 2009, in the ‘Energy Producer of the Year’ category.
  
• Award of ‘Navratna’ status to the company by the Department of Public Enterprises, GoI, for its operational efficiency and financial strength, which affords greater operational freedom and autonomy in decision making

2009-10:

• Award of ‘Mini Ratna’ status by the Department of Public Enterprises, GoI, to CMPDIL- Chairman and Managing Director of the Company, Partha S. Bhattacharyya, was conferred with the ‘CEO with HR Orientation’ Award by the Council of World HRD Congress at the Global HR Excellence Awards Ceremony 2010.

2010-11:

• Coal India bagged a prestigious international award in Geneva

2011-12:

• The Maharatna coal mining monolith was awarded ‘IPE CSR Corporate Governance Award 2012’ for its outstanding achievement in Corporate Social Responsibility. 
  
• Coal India Limited was named to 'Platts Top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings' for 2012 for having distinguished itself through its remarkable performance last year.

2012-13:

• CIL bags 1st prize in the corporate offices category for best implementation of Official Language policy of the Union by Town Official Language Implementation Committee(TOLIC) (PSU), Kolkata on the occasion of prize distribution ceremony-cum-Half yearly meeting 
  
• The Maharatna coal mining PSU was conferred with two Corporate Social Responsibility Awards

2014-15:

• Bagged the coveted Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar 2015 award.
  
• Conferred the 'Fastest Growing Award' in the India Today PSU Awards event held in Delhi.

2017-18: 

• Coal India wins award for ‘innovative use of fully automated tendering process.’

2018-19:

• ‘BEST team’ award in EDPM (Executive Diploma in Project Management)
  
• Coal India Limited (Northern Coalfields Limited) has been awarded Third Best CPSE in terms of procurement Value through Govt e Market (GeM)

2019-20:

• CIL Bags ‘Public Sector Of India’ Award
  
• CIL bags CSR Award For Rural Development
  
• CIL awarded for its innovation in procurement process

• 1973-74: Nationalization of coal mines, in order to provide for a higher growth in coal sector to meet the growing energy needs of the country.
  
• 1973-74: Incorporation of the Company as ‘Coal Mines Authority Limited.
  
• 1975-76: Change of name of the company to ‘Coal India Limited’.
  
• 1975-76: Incorporation of CMPDIL, ECL and WCL, and formation of BCCL, CCL, CMPDIL, ECL and WCL, as its subsidiaries.
  
• 1979-80: Construction of the low temperature carbonized plant started in Dankuni Coal Complex.
  
• 1979-80: The pricing policy of CMPDIL was reviewed to ensure that the company was working on a commercial line instead of working on ‘no profit no loss’ basis.
  
• 1980-81: Construction of five new washeries: Moonidih washery, Ramgarh washery, Mohuda washery, Barora washery, Kedla washery.
  
• 1980-81: Overall production of coal by the Company and its subsidiaries crossed 100 million tonnes.
  
• 1981-82: Introduction of retention prices of coal by amending the Colliery Control Order, 1945 by notification dated March 31, 1982, in respect of its Subsidiaries.
  
• 1985-86: Formation of NCL and SECL as Subsidiaries of the Company, to manage certain mines managed by WCL and CCL.
  
• 1987-88: ‘Blasting Gallery Method’ introduced at East Katras mine under BCCL and Chora mine under ECL.
  
• 1992-93: Formation of MCL as its Subsidiary to manage mines Talcher and IB valley in the state of Orissa.
  
• 1995-96: Approval of a financial restructuring package by the Government, whereby Rs 891.7 crore of interest liability was waived, Rs 904.18 crore of plan loan repayment arrears was converted to preference equity and Rs 432.64 crore of non plan payment arrears were allowed a moratorium for repayment and interest accrual for a period of three years, to be repaid in three equal instalments.
  
• 1996-97: Rating of ‘A+’, indicating adequate safety with regard to timely payment of interest and principal, awarded by CRISIL in respect of the Rs. 400.0 crore bond issue by the Company.
  
• 1996-97: Adoption of financial viability as the basis for approval of coal development projects.
  
• 1996-97: Discontinuation of retention prices scheme and the Coal Price Regulation Account (CPRA), with the deregulation in prices of certain grades of coal.
  
• 1997-98: Corporatization of the financial flow between the Company and Subsidiaries, such that the Company is to receive only dividends under applicable policy from its Subsidiaries and the corpus of the Company was to be utilized to provide strategic support to a loss making entity only for, maintaining their productive capital assets.
  
• 1997-98: Sanction of loan of $1.03 billion from the World Bank and the Japanese Bank for International Co-operation for implementing 24 highly viable open case projects with global sourcing of equipments, of which $84.40 million was availed during the period between Fiscal 1998 to Fiscal 2004.
  
• 2001-02: Laying down of a minimum internal rate of return of 12% at 85% capacity utilization as cut off for the development of a project.
  
• 2005-06: Rating of ‘AAA/Stable’, indicating highest degree of safety with regard to timely payment of interest and principal, awarded by CRISIL in respect of the Rs 250 million bond programme of the Company.
  
• 2005-06: Introduction of sale of coal through ‘e-auction method’.
  
• 2005-06: ECL and BCCL reported profit of Rs. 363.8 crore and 202.67 crore in Fiscal 2006.
  
• 2006-07: Decline in debt as a percentage of net worth from 66% in 2001-2002 to 10% in 2006-2007.
  
• 2008-09: Overall production of coal by the Company and its Subsidiaries, crossed 400 million tonnes.
  
• 2009-10: Establishment of Coal India Africana Limitada, a foreign subsidiary in Mozambique
  
• 2009-10: Conversion of the Company into a public limited company.
  
• 2014: Coal India signs MoU with Government for 2014-15. Coal India and Tata Medical Centre join hands. Coal India announces Rs. 235 Crores for Clean India initiative.
  
• 2015: The Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the Coal India Limited signed a Memorandum of Agreement to impart skill training to 1.7 lakh people .
  
• 2017: Coal India has launched the ‘Grahak Sadak Koyla Vitaran App’ aimed at benefitting customers of the company that are being supplied coal by road.
  
• 2017: Coal India has reportedly set up Monitoring and Control Cell at its office as well as all coal producing subsidiaries to monitor the critical coal stocks situation in the country's power plants.
  
• 2017-18: Based Online Monitoring System commenced :-Monitoring of 69 coal-mining project costing more than Rs.150 Crores with Project monitoring software MS Project.
  
• 2017-18: CIL in association with CMPDI launched a portal MDMS (Mine Data Base Management System) to monitor the ongoing projects costing Rs. 20 Crores and above in CIL.
  
• 2018-19: Coal India Limited for the first time, breached the 600 Million Tonne (MT) mark in coal production and off-take ending FY 2019 by producing 606.89 MTs of coal and supplying 608.14 MTs, clocking growths of 6.97% and 4.8% over previous year respectively. The company leapt from the 500 MTs production to 600 MTs in mere three years.
  
• 2018-19: All the subsidiaries of CIL earned profit during the year
  
• 2019-20: Coal Production: Coal India Limited produced 602.13 Million Tonnes (MTs) of coal, CIL breached the 600mt mark for the second year consecutively.
  
• 2019-20: In the month of March 20, CIL produced 84.36 MT, the highest so far in a month since the inception of the company.
• 2019-20: Coal stock at power houses was its highest in a decade at 45 .01 Mts (28 days) as on March 31, 2020.
• 2020-21: A growth of about 108% in CIL’s CAPEX expenditure.
• 2021-22: CIL ended the year with a best-ever production of 622.6 MT -registering a growth of 4.4 %, Highest ever offtake of 661.9 MT - chronicling a growth of 15.2% and Greatest overburden removal (OBR) at 1366MCum - reporting a growth of 1.6 %.
• 2021-22: Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) became the second CIL subsidiary to join the exclusive club of 150 coal-producing companies.
• 2022-23: Coal India produced 703.2 MT of coal in FY’23, registering a growth of 13%
• 2022-23: Coal India breached the 700 MT production mark for the first time on March 30, one day ahead of the closure of 2022-23.
• 2022-23: Coal India: Five of CIL’s coal producing subsidiaries, BCCL (113%), MCL (110%), NCL (108%), WCL (104%), and CCL (100%), have raced ahead of their respective production targets of 2022-23.
• 2023-24: The fiscal 2023-24 saw a record-breaking coal excavation of 773.64 million tonnes, a 9% rise over the previous period and the highest ever since inception.
• 2023-24: Colossal coal offtake of 753.59 MT in 2023-24, compared to 694.69 MT in the previous year.
• 2023-24: CIL recorded 1971.05 CuM of overburden (OBR) during the fiscal year, up 19% from the previous year's total of 1658.62 M.CuM.
• 2023-24: In FY 2023-24, CAPEX reached an all-time high of Rs 19,840 crore, reflecting an increase of 20 percent from the target of Rs 16,500 crore.
• 2024-25:  Coal Gas India (CGIL) has been incorporated on March 25, 2025 as a subsidiary of Coal India (CIL), in which CIL will hold 51%.
• 2024-25:  CIL has achieved its highest ever production volume of 781.06 million tonnes in FY24-25.